Naruto vs Sasuke: Roles Reversed
by MrAwesomeMattyDA
Summary: You heard Naruto say it when battling in that clash: "You know, Sasuke, our roles could have been reversed." What if for one moment, you could look at the battle of Final Valley in which Sasuke tried to prevent Naruto from running away from the Hidden Leaf? What if the battle had turned differently? Let us dive into an alternate reality where the roles are reversed. (no pairings)
1. Battle on the roof

_For all of you who are reading this, we all know the story of Naruto and Sasuke's rivalry. We all remember how Sasuke's hatred had grown when he lost to Itachi in Tanzuku Town, how he challenged Naruto to a fight on the hospital rooftop, how he left the village of the Hidden Leaf, and all the events that led up to the current Naruto Shippuden. But there was an interesting thing Naruto said about Sasuke. He said that THEIR ROLES COULD HAVE BEEN REVERSED._

_What if the roles had been reversed? What if as kids Naruto gave into the pain and hatred and Sasuke remained pure? What if for a slight chance, you could have a look into what might've happened if the story of Naruto went a different direction? Please enjoy the following fanfic story: Naruto vs Sasuke: Roles Reversed._

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

The wind blew peacefully outside the boundaries of the Hidden Leaf Village. The air was peaceful as the leaves blew within the wind. The air brushed against the hospital rooftop as the door opened. It revealed to the team of Kakashi, Squad 7.

It had been at least a week since Itachi had beaten Sasuke at Tanzuku Town and recently just woke up from the help of the new Hokage Tsunade. But the anger of what had happened to him still burned inside of him as he walked onto the rooftop. How his older brother paid more attention to Naruto than him turned his stomach raw and angry. He looked at the orange-wearing boy, who had a grin in his face and excitement that could be spelled out across him.

Sakura felt nervous as she stood at the door and watched the two boys face off on each side of the rooftop. She and Sasuke watched Naruto slowly and cheerfully giggle as he grinned at the Uchiha.

"What's so funny?" Sasuke asked.

"I'm not laughing cause it's funny; I'm just psyched," Naruto said, grinning, "because I know today's the day where I finally beat you."

Sasuke gritted his teeth in anger as he remembered Itachi's words with Jiraiya.

"I know he's the one you're really after."

"You're right; Naruto is the prize that the Akatsuki want, and we will have him."

He activated his Sharingan and said, "What did you say? Don't talk nonsense, you worthless loser."

Naruto gritted his teeth in a smirk and replied, "I won't be such a loser after I win today, will I?"

Itachi's words could be heard ringing over and over in Sasuke's ears.

"Go away; I have no interest in you at the moment."

Sakura could definitely tell that her crush was starting to look more and more aggressive and furious. His eyes showed an intense fierceness she had never seen from him before. She watched as Naruto and Sasuke continued talking back and forth.

"You… an idiot like you has no business talking all high and mighty!" Sasuke pointed and yelled.

"Haha, what happened to the calm and controlled Sasuke we know? Am I making you nervous?" he heard Naruto say.

Although he was absolutely furious at the knucklehead, he stopped to think… he had a point. This was the first ever time Naruto ever got to him and shook him. Every other day, Sasuke would shrug him off as an immature doofus. But now that Itachi and this Akatsuki group was after Naruto, it made him feel that this loser… might be stronger than he ever gave him credit for. After all, it was him who defeated Haku on their mission to protect Tazuna. He went on to defeat Kiba and the strongest Genin, Neji, and ever saved him and Sakura from Gaara's rampage. And to top it all off under Itachi, he fought in a battle that had Orochimaru involved.

"Seems to me you picked a fight with me and now you're too scared to go through with it. Is that it?" he heard Naruto finish.

"Let's just do this," Sasuke replied, finally smiling at the thought of fighting him.

Naruto got serious and stretched out, saying, "Put on your headband and we will. Don't worry; I'll wait."

Sasuke smirked and shook his head, "Not to worry; I don't need that thing."

This caused the blond hair boy to lose his grin instantly and become angry, "Just do it! Come on!"

Sasuke looked at Naruto, realizing he was getting to him by not giving him complete satisfaction of a perfect fight. He grinned, thinking of the perfect opportunity to take control of the match. Naruto was always so easily riled up about everything, so maybe using this to get him blinded by anger could serve his purpose. He smiled and pointed to his forehead with his thumb.

"There's no reason to put it on, for you won't be able to ever land a scratch on my forehead," he taunted.

"That's not the point!" Naruto yelled, holding his headband that was secured on his brow, "Come on! You know that putting on your headband on means a testament to fighting on equal terms as a Leaf Shinobi!"

Sakura gasped at Naruto's words. Although he was a goof and a stupid moron at times, the boy knew and lived by honor and allegiance. He slowly let go of his headband and watched as Sasuke pointed angrily at him.

"There you go again, talking all high and mighty! You don't honestly believe we're equals, do you?" the Uchiha yelled.

"Heck, yeah, I do! I don't feel inferior to you in any way!" Naruto yelled back.

"Oh, please, don't make me laugh! You're an embarrassment!"

"Only cause next to me you're embarrassed of your strength! Isn't that right, Sasuke!?"

**THIS IS WHERE THE ROLES REVERSE.**

Sasuke scoffed as he gritted his teeth under his lips and said, "Tch, please. You honestly think I'd be embarrassed… by a MONSTER like you? You're pathetic, Naruto."

Those words caused an eerie silence as Naruto slowly widened his eyes and gave him a horrified expression on his face. The whole boy's body just shut down with disbelief as he slowly looked as if he was going to cry. Sasuke immediately lost his anger and blinked in confusion… and a bit of regret. He looked at Sakura, who looked concerned at the boy. He slowly closed his eyes and realized he went too far in his insults. He looked at Naruto to see something that prepared him for a battle.

Naruto slowly gritted his teeth and clenched his fists as he glared angrily at him. There were no words, just anger and hatred towards Sasuke. He slowly bared his teeth furiously at him and with his rage over boiling, he slowly inhaled. With a bloodthirsty roar, Naruto charged at Sasuke, with Sakura helpless on stopping her teammates.

The boy threw a right punch at the Uchiha as he did the same. Both blocked their punches and struggled for an advantage. Swiftly, Sasuke let go and flung his right foot towards his opponent's ribs. Naruto caught his foot and slowly flew him off his feet by swinging him in a huge circle. Realizing he would be thrown if he didn't stop, he slowly put his hands on the floor and twisted the momentum, stopping Naruto from his plan. The boy grunted in shock as Sasuke took his free foot and flung it into his chin. The boy grunted in pain as he was flipped into the air and Sasuke jumped after him.

Soon, the boys traded blows as they fell down from mid-air, but the Uchiha got the advantage of knocking Naruto into several sheets being hung to dry on racks. The Uzumaki became entangled with the clothes as Sasuke took opportunity. He ran over and started to pummel the boy from the outside. Sakura watched in horror as Sasuke continued to pound on Naruto.

"Come on, you loser! Fight me!" Sasuke yelled as he readied another punch.

Suddenly, he heard, "Shadow Clone Jutsu!"

Suddenly, multiple forms of Naruto flew out of the blankets and kicked Sasuke back, causing the Uchiha to roll across the rooftop. As he got to his feet, he was surrounded by a crowd of Naruto's shadow clones. He watched as several of them at a time charged at him.

Sakura gasped as she watched multiple shadow clones poof into smoke. She watched in horror as several minutes went by with Sasuke took out clone after clone with his taijutsu. Suddenly, she gasped as multiple clones suddenly rushed Sasuke from all angles.

"NA-RU-TO!"

Sasuke grunted as all Naruto clones kicked him into the air. He widened his eyes to see the real Naruto and a clone come down, attempting to kick him towards the rooftop.

"UZUMAKI BARRAGE!"

Sasuke growled as he grabbed the ankles of both and flung them to the ground. The clone smashed into the solid surface, poofing into smoke as several clones caught the real Naruto. As they all looked up, they saw Sasuke with a handsign and inhaling.

"Fire-style! Phoenix Flower Jutsu!" Sasuke yelled as he blew out a huge flame.

Naruto slowly widened his eyes in total fear as he and his clones stood in horror. They looked up at the face of the hateful Sasuke, setting a huge danger their way. It was too late to run as the flames engulfed them. They all shrieked in total pain as the fire shrouded any vision of Naruto and his clones. Sakura suddenly gasped as her friend was then contained in a fire and set ablaze to the point where it could be fatal. She let out a blood curdling scream that made Sasuke suddenly stop and widened his eyes.

_"W-Wh… what am I DOING!?" _he immediately thought.

He looked at Sakura who stared terrified at the screaming chorus of Naruto and his clones. Suddenly realizing what he had done, Sasuke deactivated his Sharingan and ran to the flame once he landed on the ground.

"NARUTO!" he yelled in a concerned voice.

It was too late. The flame quenched its thirst as all the clones had exploded into smoke, causing a huge smokescreen, blinding both Sakura and Sasuke. They coughed and gagged as the black smoke blinded them. The Uchiha waved all of nearby smoke out of the way as he looked around with blinded eyes. He regretted using the fire jutsu and going too far as he tried to find Naruto. Soon enough, he and Sakura both saw the only Naruto burned to a crisp but alive. His skin and clothing were all burned and singed badly as both ran over.

"NARUTO!" Sakura yelled as she didn't dare to touch him.

"N-Naruto, are you okay?" Sasuke dared to ask as he motioned to touch him.

Suddenly, Naruto poofed into smoke, shocking him! It was a clone. Sasuke suddenly heard footsteps running towards him from behind as Sakura gasped. He turned around to see Naruto charging at him with a weird ball of chakra in his hand.

"SAAAASSSUUKEEEEEEE!" Naruto roared as he came closer.

Sasuke saw nothing more than pure rage in Naruto's eyes. The desire to kill, the want to cause others pain; the same look he used to have. He quickly and gently pushed Sakura out of the way as Naruto stepped right in front of him. He gritted his teeth as he tried to evade, but the blond-haired ninja was too quick this time and began to strike him with the new attack.

"RASENGAN!" Naruto shouted.

"SASUKE!" Sakura yelled as she landed and watched in horror.

Suddenly, the boy was jerked off his feet and flipped backwards as his intended target blinked in shock. Soon, he was brought down hard on the ground as the Rasengan dispersed out of his hand. The three Genin looked to see their sensei, Kakashi, pinning Naruto to the ground.

"That's enough, both of you," Kakashi said, "You've gone too far with this fight. I'm ending it here."

He turned his head to Naruto and said, "Naruto… that jutsu of yours is a highly dangerous technique that should only be used against enemies… were you trying to kill Sasuke?"

Naruto gritted his teeth and grunted angrily at him.

"No! Kakashi, let him go," Sasuke said as he hurried over.

"Sasuke?" the Jonin asked for verification.

"I challenged Naruto to a fight, and I lost my temper. I said things that I don't mean, that I shouldn't of. I got him furious to the point where he used that jutsu. If anyone's getting in trouble for this, it's me. Let him go; this isn't his fault," Sasuke said.

Sakura smiled as she stared at him adoringly. Seeing her do this made Naruto even more furious as he closed his eyes. Kakashi slowly nodded and sighed.

"All right, Sasuke," he said, getting off Naruto, "For now, you two need to stay away from missions… and each other. For now, I want you t-"

Before he could finish, Naruto took a running start and jumped off the rooftop. The three immediately saw him running away in a hurry.

"Naruto! Come back!" Sakura called out to him, but soon the orange-wearing ninja was gone.

Kakashi sighed and rubbed his neck, "I better go after him before he starts another fight. He can get pretty reckless at times."

"No, Kakashi… this was my fault," Sasuke said, clearly catching Kakashi off guard, "I… I was angry for losing to Itachi, how he and the Akatsuki are after Naruto, and how he's gotten stronger recently. He's… he's almost near my strength; he's catching up to me."

Sakura looked amazed at Sasuke as he continued, "I respect and admire Naruto's recent growth, but because of Itachi's appearance, I was angry at him. I challenged him to a fight and I… I went too far. I called him what every person in the Leaf called him: A monster. I must've hurt him a lot, cause he looked like he would break down right there. Then he got enraged and we fought. That's when you showed up, Kakashi."

Kakashi took this in with total surprise. Sasuke started a fight? He looked off into Naruto's direction as he nodded.

"All right, then I better double it trying to find him. If you did really hurt him, he's gonna be on edge and unstable. Sasuke, for now, I need you to stay away from him; because to be honest…. You hurt him more than you think."

Sasuke blinked as Sakura asked, "Huh? What do you mean?"

"I've overheard some of his chats with Iruka at Ichiraku Ramen, and Sasuke: You're his idol," Kakashi said.

Sasuke widened his eyes as he continued, "He's viewed you from the first day of knowing you as a challenge to get better. Ever since that day, he's sworn to get you to notice him as a worthy ninja. I'm guessing since you called him a monster, you got to him greatly."

Sasuke slowly looked down with a sad and regretful frown. He slowly closed his eyes as his heart wished he could take back what he said. He looked up when Kakashi spoke again.

"All right, Sasuke, I'm going to go talk to Naruto. Once I do, I'll find you and let you know how it went. See you later, you two," he said with a smile, "I promise you two everything will be fine. There's nothing to worry about."

With that, Kakashi jumped off the rooftop and ran after Naruto. The wind blew peacefully as Sakura looked at Sasuke, who kept staring off into the direction his sensei and teammate ran. She looked down until she finally had the courage to speak.

"S-Sasuke… are you all right?" she asked.

Sasuke sighed and looked at her, "No, Sakura… I've hurt Naruto badly and I feel regret for every second of it. "

As he looked up at the sky and clenched his fists, Sakura said, "Do you think Naruto's okay? What will you do?"

Sasuke slowly pulled out his headband from his pants pocket and stared at the leaf symbol. He slowly held it to his face and then tied it on his head. He looked at Sakura with a look that caused her to love him more and respect him.

"I will apologize to him and," Sasuke said as the wind blew, "when Naruto and I fight again, I will fight him… as a fellow Leaf ninja and a friend."

/\/\/\/\/\/\

Once again, this is just some random idea I had on the fly. I always thought it would've been cool to see an alternate fight of what happened with the Naruto vs Sasuke battle. Tell me what you think and keep reading. ^^


	2. Things go into play

Sasuke was failing at an attempt to sleeping perfectly content in his house in the middle of the night. He had tossed and turned, remembering the way that confrontation had went down and unable to get it out of his head. Before he went home, Kakashi had found him and told that Naruto was not taking what happened anywhere near well. He refused to listen to Kakashi and he was just plain angry, but not like before. Sasuke was warned to not anger him anymore for a while. Sure, he had called Naruto a loser and the loudmouth had always acted out before, but something in his eyes just seemed to give itself away as a sign of something bad. For the first time he's seen, Sasuke saw complete hatred in the usually happy boy's eyes.

_"What happened back there….?"_ He thought,_ "I mean, sure, I went too far in my words, but to think he'd actually try to use that Rasengan jutsu on me and Sakura…"_

He looked at the picture of his family as he thought more about Naruto's behavior. He looked at Itachi in his younger years; how he idolized him in everything he did. He had a brief flashback of what he did to the clan and gritted his teeth at the thought… but then relaxed. He indeed made it a goal of vengeance to defeat Itachi, but his friends and his home was the key and stepping stones he loved and protected. He sighed with relief as he realized if he was patient, there would be a day where it'd happened.

He started to close his eyes for sleep, when he suddenly heard a bang on his door. It repeated as the knocking at the door came with a familiar voice came from outside.

"Sasuke, you here? Wake up, man," it said.

"Shikamaru?" he said to himself out loud as he climbed out of bed.

He was confused as to why anyone would need him so late, especially Shikamaru. He was the last person who would ever expect to come talk to him. As he wiped his eyes, he slowly opened the door and revealed Shikamaru, rubbing his shoulder and in his normal clothes, and surprisingly wearing a flak jacket.

"Shikamaru… are you a Chunin?" Sasuke said stunned, "I thought you forfeited in your battle in the Chunin Exams…"

"Ehh, it's too big of a drag to tell you the story, but right now, none of that is important. I got some bad news headed your way," Shikamaru said with sadness, "and it's about your team."

"What of it?" Sasuke asked.

"It's Naruto… it looks like he's left the village," Shikamaru said, looking down.

Those words shook the Uchiha and caught him completely off guard. He blinked as his eyes widened in disbelief. That knucklehead out of all people was leaving the village as a rogue? He shook his head and looked at Shikamaru.

"Is… is this some sort of joke? That loser really left the village?" he asked for him to verify.

"Unfortunately, yes, Sasuke," Shikamaru said, "Naruto was sighted by Sakura leaving the village a few hours ago. She tried to stop him, but he knocked her out and was last seen leaving with a bunch of Akatsuki agents, most likely Sasori's."

Sasuke immediately looked down as he felt cold yet confused. Why? Why would someone that strived so hard to be respected in a village he loved just leave like that? Were all those battles with people like Kiba and Neji no longer necessary to him? He looked up when Shikamaru continued.

"The reason I'm here is that Lady Hokage has requested I build a team to go get him back. And since you're the one he's the most closely related to, I'm choosing you and thus need you to help us bring back Naruto," he said.

"A-All right, give me a minute; I'll get ready," Sasuke said as he turned back into the room and closed the door to get changed.

He ran back to his bedroom and angrily put on his clothes. As he tightened his white arm sleeves and tied his headband, he looked at the picture of Squad 7. He especially looked at Naruto in the photo and then turned to go with Shikamaru.

"You better have a good reason for trying to abandon the leaf, Naruto," Sasuke said as he made his way towards the door.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

After all gave their weapon list to Shikamaru, the retrieval group were finally ready to head after Naruto. The group was led by the lazy Chunin, and consisted of Sasuke, Choji, Neji, Kiba, and Akamaru. All of them looked towards Shikamaru as he told them their line formation and their plan for combat.

"And that's how we're gonna approach them, because we don't know if Naruto's life is in danger?" Kiba asked as Akamaru whimpered.

"No, they're not going to kill Naruto; they need him alive in order to extract the Nine-tailed Fox from Naruto, but we don't know what they might do to him otherwise," Shikamaru said.

"They may critically injure Naruto as a threat; they need him alive, but that doesn't mean they need him at full health either," Neji said as he folded his arms.

"Whatever may be the case, Naruto can be used against us. We need to find a way where that doesn't happen," Shikamaru said.

"I just don't get it," Choji said, shaking his head, "Why would Naruto of all people leave the village? Isn't this his dream of being the Hokage?"

There was a bit of silence until a sigh was heard. All of the ninja turned to see Sasuke look up and finish his sigh.

"Let's just say… Naruto and I had a falling out recently," he said, "And because of it, I got him angry."

"So, is he doing this because of you? Or do you think it's bigger?" Neji asked.

"Well, I'm not going to repeat what I said, but Kakashi told me what I said really did hurt Naruto, yet… I don't feel that's a big enough reason to cause Naruto to abandon the village," Sasuke said.

"Whatever the case is, we can't let him get out of Konoha boundries," Shikamaru said, "He may be annoying and a brat sometimes, but Naruto is a fellow comrade of the Leaf, and I'm not letting the Akatsuki get their hands on him."

"Heh, dang right!" Kiba said as Akamaru barked happily and Choji smiled.

But something about that look kept bothering Sasuke inside. He slowly closed his eyes as he realized that it may not be that easy as the others thought. If they indeed found Naruto and he became hostile, it would be up to him alone to bring him back and fix what he wrecked. He looked up as Shikamaru began to speak.

"All right, everyone," he said, "It's time for us to head out. Let's go get that knucklehead back."

"S-Sasuke?"

Everyone looked behind the Uchiha as he turned around. They all saw Sakura walking towards them with Rock Lee on crutches right behind her. She walked up to Sasuke as he looked at her.

"I'm sorry, you two, but you're unable to come with us," Shikamaru said, "Lee, you gotta recover from your surgery and Sakura, I've got enough members as it is."

Sasuke walked to her as he asked, "So, you did try to stop him, didn't you?"

He was taken off guard as Sakura immediately let her head drop and start to sob in front of him. He watched concerned as she began to crying and hug herself.

"Sasuke… Ever since I knew Naruto, I constantly belittled him… I used to hate him and say it to his face… and now, I regret everything I did…. There's no way that right now, I can reach him…" she said.

She looked up to Sasuke with tears in her eyes and said, "But you can, Sasuke… the only one who can save him is you… Please, Sasuke… bring him back to the village… please."

Sasuke looked at her with a small smile and closed his eyes, "You love me… yet you really do care about Naruto, don't you?"

Sakura stopped crying and stared into Sasuke's eyes as he opened them and slowly smirked. He raised his right hand and then gave a thumbs-up to her. Rock Lee gasped silently at this as he recognized what he was doing.

"I promise, Sakura," Sasuke said, "I will bring Naruto back."

Kiba grinned and said, "I don't know, Sasuke; do you really think you can keep that promise to her?"

"Careful, Kiba," Sasuke smirked and turned around, "I don't go back on a promise at all."

"All right, enough talk," Shikamaru said, "It's time we go get Naruto back."

Sakura watched through her blurry tears as the retrieval team walked away out of sight and began to chase after the Akatsuki agents. Lee smiled as he looked at Sakura and chuckled. She looked at him in response. He turned to her as he grinned.

"You know how Sasuke just gave you a thumbs-up?" he said, "That's the nice guy promise."

Sakura slightly smiled as he gave the exact same motion with his thumb, "Don't worry, Sakura; Sasuke will bring Naruto back."

They both watched with smiles as the wind flew by on their faces. The leaves slowly fell from the trees and swept into the village. The tree rustled as Hinata hid behind it and watched Sasuke, Neji, and the group run, starting the mission. She fidgeted her fingers as she closed her eyes and spoke to herself.

"Neji… Sasuke… please bring Naruto back…"

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

It was only a few more seconds until Sasuke came into a clearing. He had just gotten from a battle with an Akatsuki agent stopping him from immediately following Naruto. However, Rock Lee, surprisingly had bought him time and let him chase after, with the other members of the team doing that before. He heard the sound of rushing water as he saw an amazing location he had only heard from Jonin in the village: the Final Valley. He watched as the huge stone figures of the first Hokage and Madara Uchiha stare at each other with the falls letting the water fall between them. He saw that it was clear in the sky, but soon a storm would roll in from how a hot day suddenly got cooler.

As he approached the clearing, Sasuke saw something shine that caught his attention. In the grass, was a discarded leaf headband. The ninja gasped as he recognized who it belonged to. He gritted his teeth as he picked up and continued into the clearing. Feeling he would get a better view on the stone, he began to run up the stone that was designed like the first Hokage.

As he got to the top, his eyes caught the person he was assigned to retrieve, on the other side walking way. He felt the utter most importance to be the first to know why he truly left. With a huge inhale, he raised his voice to stop him.

"NARUTO!"

The blond hair boy stopped immediately in his tracks, but kept his back turned at Sasuke. The Uchiha watched his teammate stand there as a breeze of wind flew past them. He didn't understand why this was happened; heck, he couldn't believe that it was happening. But whatever was going on with Naruto, he wasn't going to let him solve his problems by running from Konoha. He gritted his teeth as he saw Naruto take a step to walk away again.

"Don't you run away from me again, loser! Turn around and face me; explain yourself!" Sasuke demanded.

The boy slowly came to a halt and looked down. With a slow hesitation, Naruto slowly turned to the left, slowly turning around completely so Sasuke could see his face. The Uchiha widened his eyes in shock and gasped at the sight of his friend's face. The Nine-tailed Fox had completely taken over the right side of his face, causing Naruto to have the features of his nine-tailed state. His right eye was red and animal-like, the marks on his face had changed, yet all his teeth had turned into fangs. His jacket was open, showing his black t-shirt as his bangs rested on his forehead. He had a calm look on his face as he looked at his teammate.

"Look who it is… Mr. Perfect-know-it-all," he said as he put his hands on his hips.

Sasuke stared in awe at how his face was different. It was the very first time he had truly gotten a clear look at Naruto when the Nine-tailed Fox had changed his facial features. But that wasn't going to scare him or stop him. He became calm and determined as he looked on at Naruto.

"So, what are you doing here?" Naruto asked.

"I'm the one that should be asking that," Sasuke answered, "What the heck are you doing leaving the Leaf, Naruto?"

"I'm not Naruto… not anymore," the blond hair ninja said as he looked at him.

"Hmph… you really think I'm going to fall for that, Naruto?" Sasuke asked immediately, "If the Nine-tailed Fox was controlling you, you would be leaving by yourself, especially not with the Akatsuki."

The response was just Naruto giving him an angry growl as he clenched his fists.

"Why are you leaving with them? Do you honestly think they're going to help you with the fox?" the Uchiha asked.

"Tch, it's not like anyone of the Leaf Village could help me, and even if they could, they'd turn their backs on me," Naruto sneered and scoffed at the very idea.

Sasuke fixed his eyes more tensely on Naruto as he spoke, "So, that's your reason for leaving and giving up? What about your dream of making people respect you? What about becoming Hokage?"

There was a slight silence as another breeze of cool air flew past them, blowing their hair and clothes in it. They both stared back into the other's eyes and neither wavered. The Uchiha stared at him angrily as he continued.

"Naruto, if you leave the village, you'll never become Hokage. You'll become a rogue ninja who will never be allowed to enter again. I mean, what about all those battles you fought so hard to prove yourself in? What about all the friendships you made by never giving up? Are you honestly going to throw it all away by giving up?" he asked.

It was then Naruto slowly had a devilish smirk come across his face as he folded his arms.

"And since when do you care about what I do? I thought I was a loser who didn't matter to you," Naruto chuckled as he grinned.

Sasuke slowly clenched his comrade's headband tighter as he gritted his teeth under his lips. He felt a rising anger at his friend's foolishness, yet understood his point. Until recently, he's always stomped over Naruto like he was nothing and really never cared about him after missions were done. He watched Naruto chuckle more as he pointed at him.

"Besides, what's the big deal for the Leaf Village if they lose one Genin? It's not the end of the world for them or you. Besides, you got the vengeance of the Uchiha clan and Itachi to worry about. You should focus on those things instead of an idiot like me," he said.

Sasuke clenched his fists harder as he grunted in anger. Naruto lost his smile and looked up straight in the eyes and said something that shook Sasuke to his very core.

"I will say this before I leave; my days of being mistreated and feared by the people of the Leaf Village are over. I'm sick of it and I'm done with those days."

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

It seems the duo is really starting to set this alternate battle in motion. Please tell me how I'm doing so far with this. I wanna keep making sure I can make a good roles reversed story, so feedback would be great.


	3. If I have to

The Uchiha widened his eyes at the statement and recalled all the battles that he, Sakura, Kakashi, and Naruto had fought. He remember Shikamaru, Choji, Neji, and Kiba on the mission with him stay behind to fight the Akatsuki agents and even Lee came to his rescue. He recalled how all of them risked their lives for Naruto, who just ignored it and made their sacrifices useless. He watched Naruto smirk as he waved to him.

"See ya around, Sasuke," Naruto said as he turned around and began walking away, "Good luck with the Uchiha clan stuff."

As Naruto began to walk away, he didn't even feel or see the fire in Sasuke's eyes as he began to make his move...

Naruto smiled to himself as he walked towards the other side of the boundary of Konoha. Only a few more steps and he'd be out of this god-forsaken village. He felt relieved that the Akatsuki would actually offer to get the demon out of him as…

Wait a minute, footsteps. Rapidly approaching him from behind. As soon as Naruto recognized the sound getting closer and louder, he turned around, only to see Sasuke's furious face right in his. He gasped with shock as he tried to move. Suddenly, a huge impact was felt in his stomach. Knocking the wind out of him and suddenly sending him back, Naruto let out a struggled yelp as he landed on his neck and shoulders, slowly rolling to a stop. Sasuke immediately rushed over after punching him. As the blond hair boy struggled to recover, Sasuke let go of the headband, causing it to fall next to them. He grabbed his right arm, put it behind his back, and held it down with his left knee and arm. He pinned Naruto's head to the ground with his right hand as the Uzumaki glared up at him angrily.

"Sasuke…. You…." He growled angrily.

"You rotten little…! You mean to tell me that we risked our lives to bring you back for nothing!?" Sasuke yelled at him, "Shikamaru, Choji, Kiba, Neji, even Lee; we all came to rescue you from the clutches of the Akatsuki, and you're gonna just betray the Leaf Village?"

"No! Listen…" Naruto said as he winced at the pain, "I had to… nngh… go through hours of training just for you guys to look at me! I had to work my butt off just to get noticed! But because of this stupid fox, the people of Konoha can't fully accept me… at least, not yet."

"Hm? What do you mean?" Sasuke asked.

"Once the Akatsuki get the fox out of me, people in the Leaf will stop fearing me as an uncontrollable monstrous freak. I'm only going to them to get rid of this curse; I promise I'll come back to the village, Sasuke," Naruto promised as he grunted in pain.

Sasuke's whole body went pale in terror. Naruto was giving himself up to the Akatsuki? He couldn't believe the boy who said he'd never give up, who shouted at the top of his lungs that he'd become Hokage… was acting like this? He immediately became worried and concerned as he glared at Naruto.

"Are you insane? The Akatsuki are S-ranked criminals wanted by many nations, and they're responsible for a lot of crimes that happen in the world; my brother's one of them! They're after all the tailed-beasts to use for their own purposes! Do you honestly think they're going to help!?" Sasuke raised his voice at Naruto.

All Sasuke saw from Naruto was cold eyes that just stared at him. He became more worried for the well-being of his teammate as he continued.

He said, "All they want from you is the fox! They don't care about you in the slightest; they'll kill you! You'll never get out of there alive! You think I'm just gonna let you say good-bye and throw away your whole life!?"

There was more silence as the wind blew by them. Sasuke stared at Naruto, waiting for his answer to his question. He watched as Naruto sighed and closed his eyes.

"None of that matters, Sasuke…" he said, to the Uchiha's surprise, "You truly don't know if they would kill me after they took it out… and plus, the only thing that matters to me right now is just to get rid of this curse… I can't take anymore."

Slowly, Naruto began to smirk, "And if you're gonna try to stop me… then you better be prepared to back it up."

Suddenly, Naruto put his left hand on the ground, in the position that showed he was ready to push up and fight to get up. Sasuke gasped silently at this, but slowly fixed his eyes on him and put more pressure on his body.

"All right, Naruto… I don't want to fight you, but if that is the only way I can convince you to come back, then so be it," Sasuke said.

Suddenly, Naruto began to grin. Before Sasuke knew it, he was laughing hysterically at him. The Uchiha gritted his teeth and leaned his head closer, without trying to put any more pressure.

"What have you got to laugh about!?" he demanded him to answer.

"I'm just laughing at the fact that you just said you don't wanna fight me," Naruto grinned at him, "Are you afraid to take me on now that the Nine-tailed Fox is starting to give me more power, or have you forgotten what you told me at the Chunin Exams?"

Sasuke blinked in realization; it happened a long way back at the Chunin Exams, before the preliminary rounds. He had told him that he was one of the ones he wanted to fight the most. Ever since then, both of them seemed to be deeply into getting stronger for the other to fight someday. He listened as Naruto chuckled with a grin.

"I mean, come on, Sasuke; what about our fight a couple days ago? We were going at it then, so why can't you fight me now?" he mocked.

"Shut up!" Sasuke silenced him, "I know that I fought angrily against you, but… that's not the kind of fight I want. I mean, I wanna fight you as comrades, not to the death. I was wrong to make you enraged and cause you to fight me like that. I never wanted that kind of fight; even now, I still don't."

It was then that the following words would start the biggest fight these two had to date:

"Sasuke… I couldn't give a damn what you want."

Suddenly, Sasuke felt immense power from Naruto as the blond hair boy started to fight to get up. It wasn't just trying to stay on him; he honestly was having problems keeping him down. Soon, Naruto was able to get to his knees, getting leverage with his left arm. Sasuke gritted his teeth and grunted as he kept his grip and strength on his right arm.

The strength of Naruto began to overpower him as the right arm started to slowly pull away. Naruto grunted as he closed his eyes to pull his arm away as Sasuke still was putting pressure on his back with his knee. Sasuke grunted and couldn't believe what was going on as he struggled to stay in control. The Uzumaki slowly started to overpower the Uchiha.

Suddenly, Sasuke heard a nasty snarl come from Naruto. In a flash, Naruto's left arm caught the front of his shirt and grabbed a demonic strong grip on him. He widened his eyes as he gritted his teeth harder, looking at Naruto slowly turn his head to him with a smirk. The grip on his shirt started to lift him, as he soon was being lifted into the air. Forced to by the pain, Sasuke let go of his right arm and grabbed the wrist that held him. He grunted painfully as he closed his eyes. Naruto slowly grinned and slowly stood to his feet, lifting Sasuke by the front of his shirt. Seeing the rival he had long struggled to keep up to squirming in pain by his strength caused him to exhale happily with a slight chuckle.

Sasuke slightly opened one eye to look at the devilish grinning face of Naruto. He saw that the anger and hate was taking over him, but he would fight to bring back the Naruto he knew. He suddenly widened his eyes as Naruto brought back his right fist to strike him in the chest. Sasuke suddenly swung his right foot at the same time to try to stop the fist. Simultaneously, both landed their attacks on each other. Naruto widened his eyes in shock as he grunted, his head slamming into the rock and rolling away. Sasuke let out a strangled yell of pain as he was flown back from the punch. He grunted as he timed a rebound by pushing off the edge of the water-rushing falls with his hands. He ended up falling down the falls and landing on the water, using the chakra in his feet to keep him above the surface.

He panted as he gasped for air. That punch knocked all the wind out of him! How did Naruto get so strong? He coughed as he felt the air rush back into his lungs. He slowly looked up as he stayed on one knee.

_"That power… to send me flying off the cliff… is that the power of the Nine-tailed Fox? It's incredible… my chest feels like it's caved in…"_ he thought as he slowly was able to stand again.

Naruto had slowly gotten up from the kick he had gotten to the face. He rubbed his face and blinked to see his headband. Sasuke must've gotten it back from where he abandoned it. He smirked, shook his head, and took it into his hand. He stuffed the headband into his shuriken holster and slowly stood up. With a deep breath, he wiped his mouth of any blood and walked to the edge of the rock, looking down at Sasuke who in return could now see him.

Both stared at each other with the realization that they were going to have to fight. The wind once again blew during their silence.

"Lemme guess," Naruto spoke up, "Sakura's one of the people who sent you after me, right?"

"So, what of it?" Sasuke answered.

Soon, Naruto let out an aggravated exhale as he rubbed his right hand through his hair.

"You know, I kinda am getting annoyed by you guys," he yelled down to Sasuke, "I mean, when I was happy, goofy, go-getter Naruto, you guys, especially you and Sakura, couldn't care less if I fell off a cliff or something tragic like that. But now that I finally want to go on my own path, you all run after me wanting me to stay. What, are you guys never satisfied with what I do? Are you trying to control me?"

"You're wrong, Naruto," Sasuke said, "This isn't your path. This is what the Akatsuki want you to do. This isn't what you are; becoming Hokage is the path you belong on. And we're not trying to control you. Yes, I admit we didn't care about you when we started. But since you made such an impression to change our minds, we care about you, Naruto."

He slowly reached near his shuriken holster, "Listen to me, Naruto. Kakashi, Sakura, Iruka and I are your team, and everyone we know is also a part of it. We can help you control it. Let us help you fight it!"

"…Fight it…? You? Fight the Nine-tailed Fox?" Naruto said, gritting his teeth in anger as he clenched his fists, "Sasuke, many ninja that were stronger than you died at the hands of that demon! Even when the Fourth Hokage sealed it in me, he ended up dying in the process! You honestly think you can help me fight it when I can't control it? What, you think you'll beat it because you're an Uchiha?"

A bit of anger swelled inside of Sasuke, but his friend mattered more to him right now. He slowly opened the holster as he looked up at him with a look of compassion, yet determination.

"I can't fight it on my own, and I don't know what will happen, but what I do know is that you have better chances of controlling or getting rid of the fox by staying with us in the Leaf then going with the Akatsuki," he said.

With a sudden blur of motion, Sasuke twirled a kunai out of his holster and held it ready as he continued, "So as your friend and teammate, Naruto, I will not let you leave Konoha to go to the Akatsuki!"

Naruto smirked as he slowly approached the edge of the rock and began to run down it a blinding speeds. His chakra kept him on the solid surface as he approached rapidly.

"Heh, if that's the case, Sasuke," he yelled as the Uchiha gripped the kunai tightly and prepared for battle, "Then I'm gonna hafta smack you down so hard, you can't do anything to stop me!"

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

It's so hard writing battle scenes. I don't why, but they always seem so difficult to me. Anyways, I hope you like this as it keeps going! Feedback would be great, and let me know ideas!


	4. Battle begins

Sasuke immediately grunted as he ran towards the rock that Naruto was running down from and began to use his chakra to go up. Gripping the kunai tightly, he narrowed his eyes as his opponent stopped running and formed a hand sign. Suddenly, a clone was summoned and began to swing a huge punch at Sasuke. He swung the kunai at the clone, cutting him from the waist to the chest. The clone yelled in pain as he poofed into smoke.

As he ran through, he saw that two more clones had been summoned as they came at him from both sides. As the first one on his left swung a huge roundhouse kick at him, Sasuke immediately grabbed the clone's leg and with a spin, threw him into the rocky cliff. As that clone poofed into smoke, the other came at him with a huge haymaker. With elite speed, the Uchiha did a 360 degree motion and kicked the clone in the face. Before his opponent could recollect himself, Sasuke stabbed the clone in the back, causing it to poof into smoke.

The real Naruto then charged at him and swung his right fist at him. The Uchiha saw this coming and ducked, sending his friend flying over his shoulder. With a spin, Sasuke drilled the back of his right heel into his stomach, causing his friend to get the wind knocked out of him and go flying down towards the water. With a sudden burst of chakra, he pushed off the cliff and fired like a bullet at his opponent. Naruto opened his eyes and made another hand sign, as two clones popped up and blocked Sasuke's attempt to get at him.

Quickly, the genin took the first clone and kicked him in the face, and then quickly grabbing his hands, did a huge flip to send him upwards and into the cliff, causing him to poof. The other clone came at him and swung multiple punches. After dodging all, Sasuke front-flipped in air and landed the back of his heel on the clone's head. As the clone poofed in smoke, Naruto suddenly appeared through the smoke, catching him off guard. He drove a right fist into his stomach hard, which caused Sasuke to become momentarily unable to move. With a sudden movement, the Uzumaki grabbed hiss ankles and began to spin him into a huge throw. He let go as Sasuke was sent flying into the lake below with a humungous splash. Naruto gritted his teeth with anger as he dived into the water after him.

It was only a few seconds that after the water attempted to be calm again and be still, Naruto was kicked out of the water, and with a scream of pain and shock, was knocking onto the ground next to the water and skidded across it. He bounced a few times until he was lying in the ground. Soon after, Sasuke emerged out of the water and used his chakra to stand on his feet. He stood on the water as he saw his friend slowly get up and wipe his face.

"Come on, Naruto. Let's stop this fight. I don't wanna go too far again," Sasuke said, holding his stomach where he was punched and the kunai tightly.

A growl emerged from Naruto as he frustratedly glared at him, "Shut up. Like you're gonna get lucky again!"

Suddenly, he took a huge leap forward and then used chakra for a burst of speed. He did a quick spin with some fancy footwork and then tried to fling a straight-forward left punch at Sasuke. Quickly, the Uchiha ducked and back swept him off his feet with his left leg. Naruto widened his eyes and gritted his teeth with a yelp as he fell backwards. But luckily, he quickly took both hands and using his chakra, caught himself from falling and pushed off. As Sasuke turned to look at him, suddenly a clone appeared right beside him to his left, ready to attack.

_"! He summoned a clone during the punch!"_ Sasuke thought as he widened his eyes in shock, yet anticipation.

The clone swung his foot up and tried to kick him in the face, but he was able to duck backwards. Suddenly, he felt a foot kick his right hand, forcing the kunai out of his hand and into the air. Sasuke immediately looked to see a second clone had skidded against the water and did a Uzumaki Barrage sort of kick and then swiftly stood up. The first clone tried a jumping punch, yet he was able to dodge it. As the two clones continued their assault, the real Naruto then charged and began to join the assault, yet grabbing the kunai that had come down from the air and shoved it into his shuriken holster. With that, the three forced their single opponent to continue to back up on the water, as he dodged, blocked, and parried all their attacks for several nonstop seconds.

Finally, an breaking point was made when Naruto stepped in front of his clones to attack. He attempted to attack by shoulder-tackling. However, Sasuke was prepared and chopped him in the chest quickly with both hands. As his opponent held his chest and stepped back, the Uchiha swiped his left foot, causing Naruto to fail at regaining his balance and force to catch his fall by catching himself with his two hands on the water. One of the clones took advantage of Sasuke sweeping and threw a right punch at him. The blow connected, taking his target off balance and causing his head to go back in pain. The second clone grabbed the jacket of the first clone and somersaulted over him, driving a downhead kick into the top of Sasuke's head. As the genin was forced to cringe, the first clone ran around the side of the second clone and thrusted a huge kick into his chest, forcing him to yell in pain, fly backwards, and skid across the water.

Then, Naruto ran up to the clones and with them grabbing his jacket, flung him into the air above his enemy. Quickly opening his holster and pulling out a kunai, he took aim and then threw it straight for him. Sasuke sensed the incoming danger and managed to open one eye as he stopped skidding in the water. Suddenly, he gasped; a paper bomb was attached to the kunai and began to catch on fire. It was only a few seconds that the kunai exploded in the water and a huge cloud of black smoke came up as the water flailed violently and it rained back down. But as Naruto landed and it cleared, there was no sign of Sasuke, signaling he had escaped before the perilous blast. The clones rushed to the side of their real self and all three readied for any type of counter attack.

Sasuke had gotten onto the shore and hidden behind a huge slab of rock near the First Hokage rock statue. He was dripping wet as he breathed a bit silently. He slowly looked at the trio who had gotten the best of him on that exchange.

_"Tch... I got too careless and didn't take the clones seriously,"_ he thought as he wiped where he was punched on his face, _"Thanks to that, I lost a kunai. As long as he has chakra, Naruto's going to be a handful with that Shadow Clone Jutsu. But to think he really tried to kill me there... He's really serious about removing me out of his way."_

He then opened his bag that was attached to his shorts as he thought, _"Looks like I'm going to need to take this fight a bit more seriously..."_

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

"What? You sent only a team of genin after them?" Kakashi said in disbelief as he stared at the Hokage, Tsunade.

"I had no choice," she replied, "There were no chunin and jonin available for me to use on the mission. We needed to go after Naruto as soon as possible, and these genin were the only ones available."

Kakashi sighed as he looked down in frustration. He slowly closed his eyes as he nodded at what she said.

"I see..." he said softly as he then turned to leave the office of the Hokage.

"Hey, where are you going?" Tsunade said as she held a scroll up, "I've already got your next mission that you need to complete!"

"Well, just hold onto it for a second. I need to go take care of something," the jonin said as he walked out the door with urgency.

"...Very well. Kakashi, do your best in assisting Shikamaru's team," Tsunade said with a nod as the door was shut.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

"Summoning Jutsu!"

A huge puff of white smoke came out of the ground as the ninken of Kakashi sat in front of him. They looked up to him as he gave his command.

"All right, I want you to find Naruto and Sasuke's scent. We need to go after them. Now, SCATTER!"

The dogs then began to violently search everywhere for any scent of the two boys from Squad 7. Kakashi slowly began to remember the angry the hateful looks of the two boys and how both nearly killed the other on top of the rooftop.

"...I was being naïve... they really could kill each other if they're not careful..." Kakashi said to himself.

Suddenly, a howl was heard from the front as he looked up. Adjusting his headband, he jumped to a tree branch and began to head on his way towards the Final Valley. But unknown to him and the dogs just yet, Sakura had seen him run towards the entrance and followed him. She hid the entire time behind the gates and watched the whole scene. Once Kakashi had gotten a head start and with a serious look on her face, she soon followed in full pursuit.

"I won't be left behind this time! From here on out, I go where you go, Sasuke... Naruto!" She stated in her head as she followed behind her sensei.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

He kept looking. Looking and looking, and still no trace of that guy. The boy was starting to get antsy. Just looking around for Sasuke drove him insane with frustration and he couldn't bare it any longer.

"Come on, Sasuke! How long are you gonna hide from me!?" he screamed out, causing his clones to jump a bit from his sudden dialogue.

Suddenly, a kunai came out of nowhere, flying right at him. Looking up to see it, his clones were ready to intercept it. They both jumped in front of him and prepared to take the stab if necessary. But suddenly, there was another noise. It was faint, but grew louder with every step of water it took. The three turned to see Sasuke coming from behind them out of nowhere in an instant.

_"Guh! He threw the kunai with a trap, then used his speed to circle around me!"_ Naruto thought as he gritted his teeth.

Charging up to the trio, the clones somehow forgot about the incoming kunai that was flying down at them and had turned to face Sasuke. The left side clone was not fast enough as the kunai sunk deep into his back. Letting out a strangled yelp of pain, the real Naruto and other clone realized their folly as they were taken back briefly by it. Yes! Exactly what Sasuke wanted!

Taking advantage of the dropping of his guard, the Uchiha swiftly slid between both of them and grabbed his kunai, just as the clone it had stabbed had poofed into smoke. The other clone roaring charged forth and swung several punches at Sasuke, but none of them met their mark. Finally seeing an opening, he slashed through the clone, causing him to disappear. It left only the real Naruto alone, who widened his eyes in surprise and started to ready his handsign. But suddenly, he was forced to stop as the kunai was thrown right at him. Gasping, he sidestepped suddenly to the left, causing him to be off balance for just a milli-second. Luckily, that was long enough for the Uchiha. Appearing as a blur at first, Naruto saw him immediately appear right beneath him and launch and knee into his stomach. Getting a bit dazed from that kind of strike, the blond haired boy sailed a bit into the air as Sasuke took a step back, then did a 360 spin, finishing with his foot smashing into the chest. Its impact caused Naruto to sail back into a huge rock, causing it to smash open and break a chunk off it.

Immediately standing at the ready, Sasuke stood on the water, waiting patiently for his friend's next move. The dust cleared off as Naruto was shown grunting and holding his left side. Glaring at him, he stood up and panted a bit. The divine speed and raw power of Sasuke was always something he had struggled to keep up with. No matter what, it was always Sasuke, Sasuke. With Sakura, with Kakashi, with everyone. He growled as he shook his head.

"Damn it... I'm not losing this one, Sasuke!" he roared out.

"We don't even need to fight, Naruto; not like this," his friend tried to reason, "This can all end if we just go back to the village right now."

"What, so people can gloat about you all the time, and how you saved me?" Naruto glared furiously at him as he wiped his mouth, "Not a chance!"

"This has nothing to do with me, Naruto; this is about saving you from making the biggest mistake of your life!" Sasuke said, putting his hands out in front of him, "Why can't you see that?"

"Shut the hell up!" Naruto roared, rushing at Sasuke, as both got ready for round two.

/\/\/\/\/\/\

Okay, this is just hilarious. My other stories I put so much work and years into, and they got about 62 views each with about 4 followers and 2 favorites. This Naruto story I made on the fly, and it already has over 160 views each chapter, and 9 followers and 5 favorites. I guess I need to focus more on this, huh? Please lemme know what I can do to improve this and keep reading!


	5. Joking and Serious

The giant explosion roaring out incredibly, the whole area shook at the amazing power that had collided. The two boys both had clashed in a fiery flash; Naruto had tried another paper bomb attached to a kunai, but Sasuke decided to intercept it with his Fireball Jutsu. The result was a lot more impactful than they thought; it ended up blowing up in their faces. But Naruto was unhurt as he jumped out of smoke and landed on the water. He crouched a bit as he panted. Man, he was forced to work for his escape. But he couldn't afford a long battle; despite the fact he had the better stamina of the two, he rather not have Sasuke's potential back-up showing at any moment. He slowly stood up as he suddenly realized his opponent was standing up too.

Sasuke had appeared out of the smoke and walked forward, his black eyes staying right on him. He wasn't at all shaken up from it, which was nothing Naruto wouldn't have expected less of. He was always the brave one, the smart, collected, has-it-together guy of Squad 7. It burned him inside a bit, but not as much as why he was leaving the Hidden Leaf.

Just the sudden look of a smirk on Naruto's face made Sasuke narrow his eyes at him. His partner wasn't taking this match seriously at all. He just wanted him down for a few minutes so he could split. He needed to find a way to get him pulled into this fight.

"Heh, I gotta admit, Sasuke. No matter who you're fighting, you really make it worth your opponent's while," Naruto chuckled.

"This isn't funny," Sasuke responded as he took a step forward, "I don't even want to be fighting you right now."

"Oh yeah? What about that fight yesterday? You really seemed like you wanted to go at it then," Naruto shrugged cockily, "What's so different now?"

"What's so different? We were supposed to be sparring as comrades, not fighting as enemies," Sasuke fired back, "You definitely know that; don't try to act so foreign about it."

A bit of a shadow like darkness covered Naruto's face as his head lowered a bit.

"...If that's the case, you should've kept your mouth shut instead of calling me a monster," he said, causing the Uchiha to blink in response and back off, "Just like everyone else... you really think I'm some monster..."

Sasuke wanted to say something, but there was nothing he could really say. Back at the fight, he was consumed by jealousy and rage, and his darker self screamed that out right at him. The total look on Naruto's face was broken and incomplete; like something he hoped for was forever lost and shattered. He listened as Naruto looked up with a calm look and folded his arms.

"You know, Sasuke? I honestly thought you were different," he said in a sad and sighing fashion, "Besides everyone calling me names and hating me, you really didn't show it back then. You called me loser, sure enough, and you degraded me, but I thought you may have liked me as a good friend. Guess I was wrong."

That ending sentence burned Sasuke inside. No, it wasn't true. He did love him as one of his greatest friends. But before he could rebuttle, the Jinchuuriki continued.

"Anyways, it's been fun playing with you like old times, Sasuke, but I gotta blow this place. Not meaning to steal Shikamaru's lines, but man, the village is a drag," he grinned and joked.

"Don't toy with me as if I'm not a threat, Naruto," Sasuke threatened as he dropped into a fighting stance.

"Hey, I got an idea, Sasuke," Naruto laughed and waved cheerfully as he used to, "How about I give you one of my clones to take back to the village? They'll never know the difference. Whaddya say?"

Insulted by the complete stupid flaws of the plan and the laughter that followed, the Uchiha grunted in frustration and said, "I said knock it off, you loser! You're coming back to the village, even if I have to drag you back."

"Oh... gee, Sasuke, I guess I'll make fifty clones to pummel the life outta ya, then!" Naruto grinned and summoned that many clones after making a hand sign.

Sasuke widened his eyes in anticipation as all clones came at him. It was relentless; every single chance he could get a breather was taken away by another clone popping up and trying to strike him. He held is ground; every strike landing perfectly and dodging every attack... that is, until one clone had grabbed his left leg when he kicked a clone back with his other. He fell off balance for a tiny second, but that was long enough for the rest of the eight clones to grab him. His arms forced behind his back and fingers separated for no jutsu casting, Sasuke was apprehended and forced to stand still.

Smirking, Naruto simply walked right in front of him. The Uchiha needed to move, but because of the mob of clones that captured him, he was unable to dodge any attack then. He looked right into those blue eyes; those eyes that once were joyful and dreamed of reaching the Hokage seat, were now like his only a few days ago. He groaned as his arms were pulled painfully as his teeth bared at the real Naruto.

"N-Naruto... I'm warning you... you're making a big mistake...!" he struggled to threaten.

The boy simply closed his eyes with a smile as he summoned one more clone by his side and said, "The only mistakes I'm seeing are the ones the village made, and you made, Sasuke. The village made the mistake of hating me and treating me rottenly for all these years, and now, they'll never see me again. And your mistake was you being stupid enough to come alone after me. And now..."

Suddenly, those normally calm eyes of Sasuke panicked as Naruto opened his victorious looking eyes and began to charge up a Rasengan. He struggled, but his teammate's clones and their combined strength was too great. He watched helplessly as Naruto soon rushed at him with a completed jutsu.

"You're gonna pay the price! RASENGAN!" he yelled as he drove the chakra ball into Sasuke's chest.

A chorus of painful yells shrieked out of Sasuke and the clones as the collision hit. Soon, a smoke cloud appeared from nowhere and a huge explosion into one of the walls of the battleground was created shortly after a sudden fling of speed from an person being sent flying. Naruto watched peacefully as the smoke and rubble soon cleared, and as he saw no signs of Sasuke, let his last remaining clone disappear. He turned his back and began walking towards the waterfall in order to climb up and remain his departure.

"NAAAAAARUUUUUTOOOOOOO!"

Suddenly, a scream of his name caused the boy to whirl around, right in time to see Sasuke ready a huge punch to his jaw. It send his head turning rapidly to the side as the Uchiha glared at him. But something made him gasp; something... just didn't feel right. He watched as the Uzumaki just turned his head back slowly with a bit of a confident look. He drilled another punch into his chin, causing his head to fly back, but he once again, brought it back to look at Sasuke. A series of nonstop kicks and blows were given, but Sasuke just couldn't shake that feeling off.

_"Why...? I don't... understand... Damn it..."_ he thought as he finally stopped.

Taking a step back, his fists and feet under his shoes looked red from soreness. He felt like he had been punching and kicking a steel wall for hours. Flinching at the pain, he closed his eyes for a bit, then shook them out.

"You gotta be kidding me, right? That's all you're capable of?" he heard, as he looked up at Naruto, whose head was still turned to the left from the last punch and eyes were closed.

"Wha..." he began to speak, but was cut off.

A smirk appearing, Naruto continued, "I can't believe I wasted so many hours training my butt off to catch up to your strength. Man, I really wasted a lot of time."

"What are you saying, Naruto?" Sasuke finally spoke up.

"Oh, come on; can't you feel it?" his comrade asked as he then opened his eyes and looked at him, "I'm not even using the Nine-Tailed Fox's power."

Suddenly, a bit of anger came out of the Uchiha and snarled as he threw a punch, "Don't mock me!"

The fist was caught with ease, as Sasuke's eyes did a double-take at how easily his fist was caught. No way he could've done this back then. Something had to happen to him.

"You honestly dare to try to tell me you can save me from the demon inside me? You can't even handle me one-on-one," Naruto glared back at him, and said words that readied the Uchiha for another round.

In an instant before he could react, Naruto used his strength and with a loud grunt, flung Sasuke up into the air. Quickly summoning two clones, they flung him hard into the air right after the opponent. Flying at high speeds, Sasuke looked down to see Naruto coming right at him faster. He raised his arms in front of his chest and face, preparing for any attacks. Soon the orange-wearing ninja was right in arms length of him and began striking at him.

"Come on, Sasuke! I can tell you're holding back on me!" he yelled as he traded missed and blocked attacks with his enemy, "What, are you scared you're gonna kill me or something? You taking pity on me!?"

A good clip on the face caught Sasuke off guard and made him go limp for a few seconds. Seeing this opportunity to attack, Naruto grinned and readied a heel strike to send him crashing down, possibly fatally, against the rocks.

"Well, don't! Show me what you can do! I wanna see what the avenger of the Uchiha clan has got!" he screamed, beginning to throw his leg into him.

A hand grabbing into his ankle, he was shaken up as he gasped at the sudden determined and serious black eyes. Being yanked down gave Sasuke the opportunity to land a punch right to Naruto's face, causing him to hold his nose. Then, with a calculated spin, he threw Naruto onto a direct path into the water below. Hearing the scream of suddenly being thrown, he watched his opponent splash hard into the water, as he too readied his descent. Landing on the water and bending on one knee, he clenched one fist and soon stood up.

_"Fine, Naruto. You're gonna joke about this?"_ he thought as he began to formulate a plan of his, _"Then I'm gonna get serious and make you decide to stay and finish this!"_

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

"Pakkun, how much further is it to where they're fighting?" Kakashi asked, worried by keeping his voice rather subtle.

"Ehh, it's hard to track. There have been so many battles between Sasuke's team and the Akatsuki agents taking Naruto that it's hard to even pick up their scent," Pakkun answered, as he and Kakashi were both stepping on the gas so to speak to reach the boys of Squad 7, "But they're a little longer away."

Looking down, Kakashi sighed. This wasn't how it was supposed to go. It was supposed to be all right, just like he promised Sasuke and Sakura. But he never imagined this would happen to Naruto. Not now, not ever, not like this.

"All right then, we keep going at it and follow them," he said to his ninken, "We can't afford to rest when there might be a possibility in one of them dying."

"Hold on," Pakkun looked at him and asked, "I know the two boys would rip out each other's throats from time to time, but they wouldn't actually try to take each other's life... or would they?"

"I really can't tell you truthfully anymore. Back then, it'd be a no, but after that fight, and the looks they had on their faces..." the Jonin trailed off and closed his eyes.

A bit of a collected silence came from the two as the answer to the question remained unknown. Would those two go so far as to kill one another? Was their bond breaking?

The question was immediately put on hold as Pakkun sniffed the air and stopped, "Kakashi, we're being trailed."

Both stopping in a flash, the Jonin pulled out a kunai and turned around. His gaze turned to a tree, about several feet away, to the right, behind a moss covered one.

"All right, come out. I know you're hiding there... Sakura," he said gently.

Soon, the pink-haired girl emerged, and jumped forth onto the same tree limb the two pursuers were on.

"Kakashi-sensei... please forgive me, but..." she said bowing her head, then looking up with courageous eyes, "I want to come too!"

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Oh my gosh, this whole chapter on three hours. Talk about your mind being tired. Ya know, it's not easy coming up with great writings. The ideas are easy, but taking the time to describe them specifically and editing them to improve is like freaking homework. XD Anyways, please tell me if I'm doing good. Thanks. Keep reading!


	6. Flashback

A/N: Hi, guys and gals, so a lot of people have been asking me questions about the story in reviews and such. Because of this, I'm answering them ALL in this one statement: NOTHING HAS CHANGED AT ALL IN THE STORY. Everything in the REAL Naruto story stayed true: Like, Sasuke has the curse mark from Orochimaru, all the battles happened the exact same way, etc. It's just the confrontation on the rooftop and the Final Valley battle with its results are my original idea.

And to make everyone know sure, NO, THIS IS NOT A YAOI STORY (or however you pronounce that). I strongly believe that two people, especially two males, can be close friends and not mean it automatically leads into sexual attraction. This is a story of strong friendship, not strong love.

And WOW! Over 2,000 views. Guys, I appreciate this so much. Keep it up as we go back to the story...

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Kakashi looked at Sakura for a few seconds with silence. She look determined and her will was strong, but was she really ready for all of this? She witnessed her very team practically break apart in front of her one day, and she seemed to still be a tad rattled still. He closed his eyes thinking of how to deal with her. Just to brush her aside and say everything would be fine didn't work how he wanted. He needed to test her if she was ready.

"Sakura, why do you want to come with me?" he asked her gently.

Briefly looking down, she soon looked up to him and said, "It's because I haven't been a teammate... or a friend."

"You mean that you haven't really been doing your part on the team?" Kakashi asked, trying to verify if his guess was correct.

"Maybe that... or maybe I don't know," Sakura said, rubbing her arm, "but what I do know is that I haven't been a teammate or a friend to Naruto."

Ahhh, so this is what it was about. Surprisingly, he would've thought she'd come to assist Sasuke, after all: she basically was jumping for joy when they were on the same team. But this was new, and this wasn't going to be as easy as Sakura may have thought. He sighed, rubbing his neck, giving Pakkun a bit of a glance, then back to her.

"Sakura, I'm going to be honest with you; depending on your REAL reason why you're tagging along with us, it might make it harder to convince Naruto to come back," Kakashi regretfully said to the girl, causing her to widen his eyes in shock and hurt, "So, let me ask you; is the reason you're wanting to come because of something that happened recently?"

Sure enough, a slow nod started to make Sakura's head move, as she kept her face lowered. With feelings of concern, he walked closer to her.

"Is this recent event something between you and Naruto that you haven't told anyone yet?" he asked.

Sakura trembled a bit at the sound of that question, Kakashi picked up. He could tell it in how her body language began to close in, how she held her breath when it whimpered, and how she immediately looked up at him. Her eyes were filled with realization and remorse. Something had happened. Maybe not the thing that convinced Naruto to go, but maybe had a role to play inside of the conviction of the boy's heart to throw away everything he held dear.

"Sakura... if you truly want to go with me... I need you to tell me everything that happened in this encounter of yours with him," Kakashi bent down on a knee to listen.

"Kakashi?" Pakkun asked, walking over, "Do you think it's wise to bring her along? If those two could really-"

Cutting him off before he could speak, the jonin said, "Sakura's apart of Squad 7. It would be unfair for me to just leave her behind when this involved the whole team."

The ninken giving him an agreeing nod, Kakashi then turned his head to Sakura, "All right, please tell me what happened between you and Naruto."

With that, Sakura took a deep breath, let out a gentle exhale, and then began to tell the flashback of what happened that night...

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

"I'm not really gonna need anything..."

The words were spoken by Naruto in his apartment room. He looked at all the things he would soon leave and forsake. All the empty ramen cups, things thrown on the floor, his messed-up bed, everything. He gave one good look around his room to make sure he was ready to leave.

It was then the picture appeared. That one where Sakura and Kakashi were happy, yet Sasuke looked dull as ever, and showed him jealous. It used to make him smile, but looking at his angry face just showed to him how unhappy things were. It was no longer a treat to be apart of a team. It was all a lie, all empty. Kakashi always focused on his rival more than him, masking why he couldn't train him with lies. Sakura always belittling him, and always dreaming about his rival...

Then here WAS the rival, Sasuke. Everything he wanted to be: Cool, wise, intelligent, skilled, popular. But now... he really did think like everyone else. It was true. The hopes of having those words uttered to him at the Chunin preliminaries were all bull; nothing he said mattered anymore. He closed his eyes and began to walk out of the room.

That is... until the glare of the moonlight caught the metal part of his forehead protector headband. It made Naruto turn and walk slowly back to it. The whole memories of his beginning; being tricked by Mizuki after he lost his third chance to graduate, the bell training with his team, the mission with Haku and Zabuza, and everything that followed up until now. It all meant so much to him at one point. The headband; everything he fought for.

It's not like he'd ever see it like that again. He was naïve and foolish; no one would change their mind about him. But then... why? Why couldn't he turn away from the headband? Maybe it just was so valuable to him. The gift from Iruka... maybe he'd hold onto it. Yeah, he'll do that.

With that, Naruto took the headband and stuffed it into his shuriken holster, along with his other weapons. With a loud scoff-like let out of air, he swiftly walked away from everything, closing the door, and soon rooftop jumping his way to the entrance of the Leaf Village.

But halfway there caused him to stop. He realized that he was passing by the apartment that Sasuke lived in. Some odd force compelled him to just stop and look over into the window. He could see Sasuke tossing and turning, having trouble falling asleep. He looked more peaceful to Naruto now. Maybe because he didn't have to worry about his constant 'loser' attitude, Kakashi's bull excuses, or Sakura's fangirl actions. It caused a smile on Naruto's face for a bit, remembering all the cool battles they had together.

_"You… an idiot like you has no business talking all high and mighty!"_

The sentences that Sasuke shouted at him began to ring in his head as his smile faded into a frown.

_"There's no reason to put it on, for you won't be able to ever land a scratch on my forehead."_

He closed his eyes, trying to focus on something else than these words.

_"There you go again, talking all high and mighty! You don't honestly believe we're equals, do you?"_

His teeth soon clenched against another as he clamped his eyes tighter.

_"Oh, please, don't make me laugh! You're an embarrassment!"_

He literally clapped his hands over his ears, grunting loudly as he felt more and more worthless.

_"Tch, please. You honestly think I'd be embarrassed… by a MONSTER like you? You're pathetic, Naruto."_

He opened his eyes looking blankly at nothing as he realized that was the boy's true feelings. Monster. Worthless. Monster. Embarrassment. Monster. Idiot. Monster... Monster... Monster...

Naruto felt a lump in his throat as his eyes felt moist. He flinched when recognizing he was on the verge of crying. He grunted loudly as he wiped his eyes and cleared his throat. Being loud enough for Sasuke to hear. The boy sat up and looked up, turning to see the window. His eyes briefly caught Naruto's face and emotion, whom which gasped upon being seen and immediately jumped away. Sasuke hurried out of bed and to his window, opening it. He looked as if he wanted to talk to Naruto, but once he did, there was no sign of him. He looked every direction.

"Naruto?"

But no answer. He ended up sighing and closing the window in vain. He lost the chance to find Naruto's reason for being there at this time of night, and would be a waste of energy to just jump out and try to locate him. It would be the start of the thought process that would keep Sasuke up during the night, until the dreadful news Shikamaru would later unfold.

Naruto had been hiding out of view against a wall, silent as death as he waited for Sasuke to shut his window. Once he did, he kept staring up hopelessly at it. All of his strength faded in a moment as he looked down and leaned against the wall. It was uncontrollable; he couldn't stop it. They rolled down his face, just briefly as he gritted his teeth in an attempt to not cry. But the tears kept forming and crawling down his face.

"...I thought... I thought you were different, Sasuke... I thought that maybe... we were friends..."

His head dropping, he pushed off the wall and wiped his eyes dry.

"But then... that would make me so stupid... Well, you won't worry about me anymore; you focus on Itachi from now on. I will never get in your way again," he barely said, as his voice cracked into a whisper.

From then, it wasn't long until Naruto reached the only pathway leading out of the village by foot. It was the very same pathway he had faked trying to be Sasuke in order to get closer to Sakura. It was funny; this path used to mean getting close, but now it leads far away. The gentle cold breeze made the trees rustle, refusing to let silence take the night's sound. Naruto... was unable to feel if he'd miss the village or not.

Suddenly, footsteps. Other than his. He looked up to see that it was her. Sakura. She had been there all along, sitting there at night. Her odd-colored eyes met his pure and bold ones, both standing and facing each other.

Whatever was going on with him, she knew it wasn't good. The headband, the one he bragged about that afternoon about being a testimony to fighting on equal terms as Leaf ninja, the one that you wouldn't catch Naruto dead without, the same one he bragged about so childishly, yet... so funny to people. It wasn't there. Not this time.

But his eyes were red. He had been crying, she knew it. And his slouched form showed he was truly tired. But tired of what? Maybe everything that's happened to him? Maybe that's why? But she kept quiet, letting him speak.

"S... Sakura..." Naruto asked, concerned, "What are you doing here?"

"Oh, just decided to come and get some fresh air," Sakura answered, smiling a bit, "I love this place here. You know it's the only way out of the village, right?"

There was no mistake now. Naruto got the hint, just like that. Sakura knew he would try to leave, so she waited for him. But she held a smile still, trying to make him cheer up. But the boy couldn't. Everything was too hard. But he would try. Soon, he made a smile and closed his eyes cheerfully, like he would always do.

"Hey, don't ya think you're gonna catch a cold out here? Besides, your parents must be worried sick," he tried to reason.

"No, I asked them, and they said I could stay out here as long as I wanted. How about you, Naruto?" she replied back, winking at him, "What are you doing out here?"

His heart struggled to tell her the truth, but he couldn't. He knew something about her would say otherwise. He just couldn't. He rubbed his head as he attempted to pass her.

"Ahh, the same thing, really. Ya know, with me being a hothead and all, I've really needed time to myself to cool off," he spoke to her as he walked, "By the way, Sakura, sorry for how I-"

"You're leaving."

The sudden sentence caused his arm to drop to his side slowly as he stared off in front of him, like a child who's been busted on sneaking away with something. His eyes slowly relaxed as he lost his cheerful disposition, letting the wind blow it away.

Sakura turned around, tears in her eyes, and looked at him with a saddened face, "You're leaving the village, aren't you?"

She just watched Naruto stand there with his back turned to her, the only thing was his hair and clothes that moved because of the wind. She saw him lower his head briefly, as if he tried to think of something to say. But she knew what was coming. He raised his head up and soon let those dreadful words come out.

"Yes, I am."

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

I'm really excited to be writing this Naruto-Sakura confrontation. I really thought of a good conversation they have, and I really got emotional when I wrote this. I know what it's like to be left as an outcast, so I could relate to how Naruto felt. Keep on reading! ^^


	7. Why the interest?

A/N: Hey, everyone. So, I've been getting a lot of awesome reviews, but I'm really interested in the ones that the pen name of jivablab has been giving me. The user has been giving me good points about the story. They are long reviews, so you can check them out in the review box. But they do bring up some things in the story that I don't explain YET, but I will in the future chapters.

Also, I'm here to write fictional stories and like I pointed out, THIS IS AN ALTERNATE UNIVERSE STORY, so it doesn't have to go by every single exact detail of the REAL Naruto story. It's okay if I do something original; that's why this website is called FanFICTION.

But that is okay. I love what the person has to say; they gave me GOOD criticism which is what I'm asking for. So, ladies and gentlemen, don't hold back. Give me what he/she gave me. ^^ I can't please everyone, but I can please the majority, and since all of you have been saying it's good, I'll keep going strong! Now, let's continue...

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

The statement rattled her to the core when he said that. He was leaving, trying to separate from everything. What happened? What changed him? She didn't understand. This boy could bounce back from any thing, good or bad. He had been called so many horrible terms and treated unfairly, even by herself. But only now, he was just quitting?

"Why... why are you leaving?" she asked, clearing her throat and wiping her eyes.

"Sakura... Why are you now interested in what I do?" he asked, putting his arms in his pockets.

She looked up in astounding amusement. Right now, he acted a lot like Sasuke did. Always burying his hands in his pockets, not even looking at people when he talked to them, the ignorance in his voice. She a bit smiled at him as she looked down and held her hands.

"Well... it's just I realize how much you strive to prove what you believe in. You're so nice and you never give up at what you do and-"

"No, I didn't ask you why I'm so interesting. I asked why are you interested in me NOW?" she was interrupted by him as she stopped.

"H-huh? What do you mean?" Sakura asked.

"You've never taken any interest in me. You've never even talked to me outside of missions; you only talk to Sasuke. Why are you taking the time to talk with me now? Is it because Sasuke or Kakashi-sensei asked you too?" Naruto said, turning around, looking at her with narrow, cool eyes.

Sakura felt the question prod at her with such accuracy. She wanted to answer, but a part of her felt like even though he didn't, he was right about that she would if Sasuke or their sensei asked her to do so.

"Naruto, can't I worry about my teammate and friend?" she asked, trying to smile.

"I... ehh, I guess so, but it feels awkward," Naruto said, looking to the side, "I'm not used to you being concerned about me."

That was a moral conviction on Sakura's part. She really never did treat Naruto well, so this sudden change of being nice to him made him have a reasonable alibi on being uncomfortable. She looked at his face, showing he really didn't care and just wanted to go on his way. But she had to try to do something.

"Well, I guess it's natural to feel that way when you haven't been treated that way for a long time," Sakura began to reminisce, "I remember how I used to treat you back at the academy and when we both just became shinobi. You always tried to outwit Sasuke at everything, I used to belittle and demote you anytime I could just to get Sasuke to like him, and he'd just ignore us. Kakashi-sensei would have his hands full with trying to deal with us, didn't he? I mean-"

"Sakura... please, that's enough," she heard, causing her to look up.

She looked at Naruto, his steadfast yet blank face looking back at her. It caused her heart to race and tears to reappear on her eyes. He didn't care though, it was enough. Too much now. It can't be allowed anymore than it was.

"I know what you're trying to do; you're trying to make me regret leaving the village by making me remember the team's great fun moments, right? I'm sorry, Sakura, but I can't," Naruto said flat out to her.

"But why? Why do you have to leave?" she asked, her voice remaining strong though tears rolled down.

"Because I'm not wanted here," Naruto answered, closing his eyes, "Nobody wants me here."

"Th-That's not true!" Sakura raised her voice at him, clenched her hands tight, "I want you here! Sasuke wants you here! All of our friends want you here!"

"Really, you want me here? Or do you want me here because Sasuke does?"

Sakura's eyes blinked, a bit surprised at the question.

"Wh-wha?"

"I asked, do you really want me to stay because you honestly feel like it's bad for me to leave and thus you're here because you feel it, or are you doing this because Sasuke felt the same way and you don't want him feeling bad?" Naruto asked.

"Does that really matter, Naruto? Someone wants you! I thought you wanted to recognized! And you have been! By Squad 7! By the rest of our friends! By our village!" she tried to ague.

"No, Sakura, the village views me as some monster... you heard Sasuke say it himself today," Naruto responded.

She gasped, realizing that earlier today that was right. But not like Naruto thought.

"He was angry because Itachi had paid attention to you more! He let his anger blind him; he even told me and Kakashi-sensei that he regretted calling you that!" she defended him.

"Sure, maybe when around others, but not when they're alone with me, Sakura," Naruto started to get angry as he took his hands out of his pockets, "If you only were there, you would know what I've been through."

"What you've been through? What about Sasuke? Don't you know what he's been through!?" She yelled at him.

The anger just began to boil inside of Naruto. He couldn't believe she was saying this. She had the nerve to warp this around? Oh, but it didn't stop there.

"Sasuke's lost all his family, Naruto! All dead! His whole clan was killed by his own older brother! He's lost everything he's ever had! And he struggles every day knowing that the one person who has taken all of it is waiting for him! Not to mention, Orochimaru and his stupid curse mark, Gaara of the Sand nearly killing him, and all these problems! Don't you think Sasuke can know your pain!?" she asked.

"THAT'S ENOUGH!" a roar silence her, and caused her to widen her eyes in fear.

Standing in front of her was Naruto, enraged with his teeth bearing out and his fists clenched tightly. It was unbelievable; he was seething mad. Just the thought of how normally positive and tolerant of how she acted towards him faded with this attitude of his. It made her feel small and powerless as he roared.

"Are you serious? You're honestly gonna compare me to Sasuke!? Why is it that everything I damn do, you always have to judge me based on what Sasuke can do!? Do you not realize that since we were on a team, I've bent my back over to get you to notice me, because you know, I actually liked you and had a crush! But no, you paid so much attention to Sasuke and always complained about how bad I was to make Sasuke be impressed of you! You always made fun of every attempt I did at fighting somebody and how I sucked, even though back then, you barely did squat to help fight, and at least, I tried to do my best!"

Sakura couldn't believe the words that were being shouted at her. She never felt so scared and cold from the truth as he kept going.

"And the fact that you dare compare me to Sasuke! Do you know how much that burns me, Sakura?! The fact that every time I actually accomplish something in my barely worth mentioning life, you have the damn guts to say to my face when I ask you how I did, 'well, it's not as impressive as Sasuke'!? Seriously, your fangirl attraction to him is coming off in waves! Can you not think of that guy for more than five minutes of your damn life!?"

It hurt, listening to those words, but the tears that rolled down her eyes knew that every word was the truth. She couldn't stop him or run; she listened more.

"And the worst thing; you think that Sasuke has the worst life!? Trust me..." Naruto finished raging, but kept going in a calm manner, "I'm not at all degrading what Sasuke went through. That horrible massacre is unforgivable and I feel so badly that it drives him to get back at his brother. But there is a HUGE difference between me and him, and if you knew what happened in my lifetime, you would not be saying that."

Sakura looked up weakly and asked, "A-and what is th-that?"

"Sasuke doesn't know what it's like to have everyone turn their backs on you. Sasuke doesn't know what it's like to be called every curseword and insult in the book. Sasuke doesn't know what it's like to lose all hope, because no one will respect or even acknowledge you. Sasuke doesn't know what it's like to be hated for just being alive. And Sasuke doesn't know what it's like... to be a... monster..."

The ending of what he said, it caused those hard fought tears that were forced inside to come out. He let a few sobs out as he looked at her, struggling to focus through the tears as Sakura felt horrible.

"Sasuke had a family; I get that they were killed, but he had one, Sakura. I never got to know my parents. I don't even know what they looked like or what their names were. Sasuke did for his family. And even to this day, I'm still alone. But Sasuke... he doesn't know what it's like to be truly alone. He has you, and Kakashi, and all those people who adore him or think he's cool. I've got nothing... and the fact that you are here because of Sasuke and not me, means my dream is a failure..." he struggled to say, his voice trembling.

Sakura felt terrible. She wanted to hug him, say she was so sorry for the past, but at the way it was going, he'd probably back up and tell her to go away. She just stood there. Helpless.

"Do you even really know why I wanted to become Hokage? Because I'm tired of being hated and called a monster because of what I am," Naruto said, holding his chest, "But after all the struggling and fighting I did, it's never going to change. All those battles, the exams, everything. It's all pointless. But I am gonna do one thing; I'm leaving, because I know they'll never accept me."

"N-Naruto..." Sakura said, soon crying and yelling loudly, "I'm sorry! I didn't know! You're right; I'm so ignorant to what you feel... but you can't just give up like this... please... please stay here with us. Please let us repay what we've done to you. Don't go..."

The wind blew around, causing the silence to be halted and give both a gentle breeze. They both looked at each other, the tears making their eyes grow bold with color. Sakura trembled as she sobbed. Naruto trying to regain his composure, the two just standing there. Soon, he spoke.

"I'm sorry, Sakura... but it's too late..."

Her heart sank as she closed her eyes and cried. They say you never know what you got until it's gone, and she was learning it the hard way. But suddenly, a chuckle came from his voice. She looked up to see him smile at her.

"You know, Sakura... Sasuke's right. You are annoying..."

With that, he began to turn around and walk away towards the entrance. She wouldn't let him do this!

"Don't go away from us! If you take one more step, I'll scream...!" she threatened.

"Sakura?" he asked, turning around with a smile that made her stop, then waving, "Thank you... for all the memories we've had."

WHAM!

A huge blow delivered to the back of her neck by a clone Naruto had conjured up from behind her. She flinched in shock but soon her senses began to close up on her. She was fading fast and she couldn't stop it.

"N-Naruto..." was the last thing she remembered saying as she blacked out into a deep sleep...

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

And the argument comes to an end. It's not the end of the flashback, but it will be close with some more info. And we'll learn other things along the way! Keep on reading! ^^


	8. Truth's realization

A/N: Hey, guys. Since I talked about criticism, I wanted to tackle some specific reviews I've gotten from a guest reviewer. His name is simple 'What'. Such an epic name (XD No, seriously, it rocks!) But I decided I want to tackle what he said out in written form, so I can explain it better, because one: he wasn't specific in one review, and two: since it's a guest, I can't contact him/her and respond to them. So, here are his/her reviews so far.

_Chapter 1: Way too OOC. It was normal at first, and even after the "this is where things are different" line Sasuke was still in character for a bit. And then out of no where, he did a complete emotional 180. Kinda weird._

Okay, in what way? What do you mean it's out of control? You need to elaborate and tell me how and where it went out of control. Otherwise, it sounds like one of those people who tell story writers to change it and when they ask why, they say 'I dunno.' Also, I stated at least twice now, after the part where it says the roles reverse, it goes into an ORIGINAL and ALTERNATE story idea. It means that Sasuke is not going to be the shallow, unemotional and collected, always angry, everything for revenge guy. It changes because he realizes his friends are more important than to throw it away for revenge. He actually... you know... LIGHTENS UP.

_Chapter 2: Why the hell would the Akatsuki be there, and why would they be aiding in Naruto's escape? The whole thing about Sasuke's betrayal was that he had A) To get to Orochimaru and B) The Sound Four, who worked for Orochimaru, help him escape. That makes sense. Akatsuki aiding Naruto does not. And on the topic of the Sound Four, they were just Orochimaru's subordinates. They were all about Chunin-Low Jounin level. The Akatsuki, on the other hand, are made entirely of S-Rank criminals. Everyone would die. You should think about major plot holes more frequently._

(SPOILER ALERT) Okay, notice how in the chapter, Shikamaru said Akatsuki AGENTS, not the Akatsuki themselves. I am going for an original idea. It was based off of those two guys Itachi and Kisame used to fight Team Guy and Team Kakashi in the beginning of Naruto Shippuden, and the fact that Kabuto was originally under some kind of control jutsu by Sasori. Those two things made me come up with an original idea that a group of ninja Sasori controlled and used did what the Sound 4 did to Sasuke in a sense: they convince Naruto while he was upset that he could maybe get rid of the thing that makes people call him a monster, and thus escort him to the Akatsuki in order to do it. AGAIN, THIS IS A ROLES REVERSED STORY.

Like the anime and manga, this story may be confusing at the beginning, because a lot of the truth or story isn't put at the beginning, but TRUST ME, WHAT: I KNOW WHAT I'M DOING, BUT YOU NEED TO GIVE ME TIME IN ORDER TO EXPLAIN AND WRITE THIS STUFF OUT. A good story idea doesn't always require every explaining plot part to immediately be written out at the beginning. NEVERTHELESS, THANK YOU FOR THESE REVIEWS. I appreciate them and love the feedback you gave me. But if you can, is it possible that you can let me know in a nicer way of saying it, because it sounds like I ticked you off when you started Chapter 2's review with 'Why the hell'. Just asking. With that, let's continue...

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

It was dawn. The sun was starting to shine. The cold air of the night struggled to stay there as the sunlight provided heat on those it touched. Sakura felt it. She slightly groaned as it hit her eyes, it blinding her out of no where and causing her to wake up. Her hands felt the hard yet cold bench she was upon. Sitting up, a yawn occurred as she began to rub the sleepy seeds out of her eyes.

"Hrrrnnng... wha... dawn?" she identified as she ran her hand through her hair.

Suddenly, she remember. The night. The argument. Naruto!

"! I have to tell Lady Hokage that Naruto left the village!" she said quickly jumped up and ran up to the Hokage's mansion.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

It didn't take Sakura more than fifteen minutes to get to the mansion and up the stairs. She ran up, barely gasping air for her lungs. This was so important and impactful; she couldn't afford to waste time taking her time. As she rounded the corner, she nearly barged into someone walking. She caught herself and looked up.

"Oh, I'm so sorry, I'm in a hurry- Lee..." she said rather hastily, but looked up to see her friend.

Lee, in his usual green outfit and with his bushy brows, was there, leaning on a single wooden crutch. He smiled as he rubbed his neck.

"It's okay, Sakura. No harm done," Lee said cheerfully.

"Why are you here, Lee? Shouldn't you bee in the hospital resting?" the girl said, rather concerned.

The boy pointed to the door that lead to the Hokage's office, "Actually, I have to go see Lady Hokage. She's in charge of my upcoming surgery and I wanted to talk a little bit about it."

"Well... I mean no disrespect, Lee, but I need to talk with Tsunade first... it's about Naruto... something bad has happened, and she needs to know about it!" Sakura said.

With a flash, she walked past Lee and began to grab a hold of the doorknob. But a sudden voice was heard in the room that caused both to silence and slowly lean against the door, eavesdropping onto the conversation at hand.

"Now that Shikamaru has gathered you all here, I can begin to explain why you all have been called," Tsunade's voice rang out loud and clear.

Inside the room, Tsunade was sitting at her desk, watching Shikamaru's team of himself, Sasuke, Neji, Choji, Kiba, and Akamaru. All genin and their chunin team leader stood in a row from right to left, facing her. Shizune and Tonton were quietly in the back watching this conversation ready to unfold.

"I'm sure that all of you have been vaguely told of what the mission you're given is about by Shikamaru," Tsunade began to explain, "Naruto has left the village last night without permission to. As a ninja, I cannot simply allow one of our shinobi to leave the village whenever he wants. But more importantly, what makes this much more of a concern is the fact that there was a group of ninja that accompanied him out of the village. They were part of a group called the Akatsuki."

"Akatsuki? Who are they?" Choji asked, blinking.

"From what I've been told by Lady Hokage so far," Shikamaru answered, "They're a group of S-ranked criminals who have betrayed their villages."

"Yes, but from the info I've been given from an old acquaintance of mine, Jiraiya, I know the full story of why they're involved with Naruto's leave," Tsunade added.

Sasuke's head perked up at that. Jiraiya... that loud white-haired guy that came to Naruto's rescue at Tanzuku Town. That was him... it made perfect sense; he must've known a bit about them, then did more investigating about them. Once he found their motive, he reported it back to Tsunade. That means she might know something about Itachi... but later; right now, Naruto was the main focus.

"Currently, it's unknown why they are doing this, but their mission seems to be to obtain all nine Jinchuurikis and use them for their own purposes," she continued.

All the boys were confused as Neji spoke up, "What's a Jinchuuriki?"

"A Jinchuuriki is a person who's body has been made the host of a tailed beast, like the nine-tailed fox that attacked our village years ago," Shizune spoke simply to explain, "By using a sealing jutsu, the beast is sealed inside of a human body. That human becomes a Jinchuuriki."

"But what does Naruto have... to..." Shikamaru started to say as suddenly, all of them, including Lee and Sakura just outside, started to widen their eyes in shock and realize the truth.

"I'm afraid that's right," Tsunade closed her eyes, "Naruto Uzumaki is a Jinchuuriki; in fact, he has the nine-tailed fox sealed inside of his body."

"No way! That can't be true!" Kiba yelled, pointing at her, "There's no way a goofy dork like Naruto could have one of the deadliest monsters inside him!"

"You really didn't notice? How the village mistreated him, shunned him for no reason?" all of them grew eerily silent as she explained, "I'd bet you that your parents have told you to stay away from him, or that you've seen how others mistreat him. You honestly have not seen that? Adding in the fact he never had a family, and you now know just how hard Naruto's life has been. Why do you think he wants to become Hokage? So that people can respect him."

Every ninja felt horrible. It wasn't like Shikamaru and Choji never noticed. In fact, they witnessed how kids just hated Naruto because their parents said so. They befriended him so he wouldn't be alone, but now it made sense as to why he was so abandoned.

Kiba suddenly understood how much Naruto wanted to be the Hokage. It didn't help at all how he taunted him at the Chunin Exams, how he mocked him for being stupid and said that he would become Hokage before him. He simply petted Akamaru, who softly whimpered.

Neji closed his eyes and remembered how he told him it was futile to become something he wasn't. How his dream was childish and how he'd never become anything more than a failure. How big of an obstacle he must've been for Naruto in that battle.

Monster... Monster. That word uttered from his mouth. He called him that. He tore into him and burned him down. Sasuke slowly looked at his hands, the same hands that struck his friend multiple times and caused a jutsu that nearly killed him. He remembered the rage in Naruto's eyes during that attempted Rasengan attack. How he called him loser, idiot, worthless... monster...

"Anyways, moving on to the mission," Tsunade got the attention of the ninja, "The specific ninja of the Akatsuki that have taken Naruto are not on the list of known agents that my associate has given me. Therefore, these ninja cannot be as strong; they must be spies or lower ranked ninja to do their dirty work. With that in mind, I do believe they have taken Naruto against his will."

But... it didn't make sense... not to Sakura. Naruto told her directly hat he was sick and tired of the village... that it was of his free will that he was choosing. His emotion, his body language, the fact he struck... no, it had to be what Tsunade said, right? There's no way Naruto could want to throw away his dream and life... would he?

While she was looking down, Lee was noticing the worry written all over her face. Did she know something about this? Did something happen...?

"All right, now that you know this, Shikamaru! You and your team are hereby given the mission to retrieve Naruto Uzumaki back from the Akatsuki safely!" Tsunade said loudly, announcing the mission.

As the two heard the ninja say they would in respect, Sakura and Lee hurried to the gate where they would meet them before they left...

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

She finished telling it as she looked at Kakashi. The Jonin was rather surprised at this revealing of a flashback. That stunning story of what happened between her and Naruto took him by surprise.

"I see..." he said, "Well, that is startling."

"Kakashi-sensei... I was so ignorant of Naruto's feelings... I always belittled him... always mocked his accomplishments... worst of all, I trashed him about how he was useless, when he did more than me, and tried to always make Sasuke look better," she looked at him, "I don't want to do that anymore. I don't want to always have to be the one who sits back and watches those two accomplish great things. I wanna be a true team member of Squad 7. That's why I want to come with you!"

He was so happy. He couldn't stop the smile coming across his face. He closed his eyes with compassion and nodded.

"Sakura... you've truly grown up. I'm so proud of you. Naruto will appreciate this change in you. You and Sasuke are his greatest friends; never forget that, okay?" he said, and as Sakura nodded and smiled as well, he continued, "All right, Pakkun, lead the way for me and Sakura."

With that, Pakkun continued on towards Naruto and Sasuke, as their sensei and teammate followed...

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Hey, guys, Christmas is coming up! So excited! What are some of your wishlists? I hope that I can keep coming up with good ideas for this! XD See you soon, and keep reading!


	9. Wanting to be understood

A/N: Hey, guys, because of a lot of people getting confused, I'm going to try and make Sasuke a bit more reserved in the next few chapters so people don't keep saying he's OOC. So, please help me out if you can and also let me know if I should change some of his stuff in previous chapters. Let's continue...

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

A swift kick landed across the jaw of him and it sent the orange-wearing ninja flying across the ground. Bouncing a bit, Naruto skidded against the ground and struggled to get to his feet. He grunted as Sasuke came at him from his right. He swiftly got to his feet, and ready to intercept his opponent from coming close, threw a punch at him. But the Uchiha readied himself and grabbed his wrist, pulling Naruto forward. A bit of a fearful yelp was heard as Sasuke landed two strong kicks to his shoulders. Taking the opportunity, he jumped off and flipped behind Naruto, grabbing the collar of his jacket. He pulled him backwards, and delivered a big kick to the middle of his back. Using his leg, he flung him over towards the water.

Naruto was sent into the air, and once gained a bit of his senses, began to try and form a hand sign. But before his hands could come together, he realized that Sasuke had followed him and was right in his face. He threw several strikes at Naruto, either missing or being blocked, but was able to get his arms apart on the last strike. Soon, he widened his eyes, seeing the chance to land another strike. He grabbed a hold of Naruto's jacket, causing the boy to gasp in shock, and then proceeded to throw him towards the water. He then opened his shuriken holster and took two kunai and some shuriken, throwing it after him. Naruto's eyes widened as he quickly used his chakra into his hands and back-flipped off and away from the sharp incoming weapons. But as he landed on his feet, Sasuke appeared right in front of him and delivered a punch to his chest, causing Naruto to go skidding back in the water. The Uchiha stood up and watched Naruto grunt painfully, standing up from the attack.

"Sasuke... you...!" he growled.

"Come on, loser; what was that?" Sasuke said, continuing to call him that as a part of his plan to make Naruto stay and fight, "Just a minute ago you're talking tough about how you're going to beat me, and now you're losing."

"Shut up, Sasuke!" Naruto roared at him, "I'm gonna shut your mouth one way or another!"

The Uzumaki then pointed his finger at Sasuke with gritted teeth and continued, "Why the hell are you after me anyway? Don't give me that crap about 'how I'm down the wrong path'! You're just like Sakura; you're only doing this because you were told to or to get approval of someone else, aren't you?!"

"What is with you? Why is it that whenever I try to show you that there's people who care for you, you just shut them out and say it doesn't exist? Why can't you see that?" Sasuke asked.

Suddenly, Naruto's eyes narrowed with pure anger as his fists shook with anger. His seething rage boiled over into his breath as he screamed.

"People who care for me? CARE FOR ME!? Sasuke, don't you have any freaking clue who I am? I'm the Nine-Tailed Fox! Everyone in the village hates me! No one cares about me! NO ONE UNDERSTANDS ME!"

Sasuke's eyes widened for a second, then closed as a bit, as he then remembered a flashback from long ago...

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

It was a long, long time ago. Back when the group had just finished the A-rank mission of escorting Tazuna to his home and protecting the progress of the bridge from Zabuza and Gato's power. The squad had joined back up with Iruka at the academy entrance to relax with the teacher who was on lunch break. It was better than picking up garbage or pulling weeds out of gardens for people.

But it was so boring to the genin team, nothing to do. Well, Sakura had something to do a bit; stare in admiration of Sasuke and have little hearts over her head. But Naruto and Sasuke; completely bored out of their skulls. And the irritation was showing, even in the Uchiha who at the time was really emotionless and much more collected. But Naruto kept groaning with closed eyes and a slight frown, while Sasuke kept his hands in his pockets and closed his eyes.

Iruka was sitting next to them on a bench, eating lunch with Sakura, while Kakashi was out in the schoolyard, reading his Make-out Paradise book. Naruto was sitting on the ground near the bench, while Sasuke stood on the opposite side. But apparently, the boys's groaning sparked a nerve.

"Urgh! Naruto, pipe down and stopping groaning like that! It's annoying!" Sakura snapped at him.

"Augh, it's so boring here!" Naruto whined, "There's nothing to do, now that I've eaten all my noodles!"

"Well, it's either sit here and relax or go back to picking up garbage around the village," Iruka chuckled, causing the boy to shiver in his limited choices.

"No no no! There's gotta be something we can do! I've gotten way, way stronger ever since that mission we just completed, and I don't wanna waste my time picking up some lazy person's trash!" Naruto protested, jumping up to his feet as a smile came across his face, "Oh, I know! Sasuke, how about you and me go at it right now?"

"Naruto! I swear if you even hurt Sasuke, I swear I'll-!" Sakura began to threaten with an angry face.

"H-Hey, Sakura! Come on, there's no need for that!" Naruto jumped back and got a bit scared, covering his face, "I was just gonna offer a spar, like practicing our techniques and stuff! I wasn't wanting to fight him!"

"Hmph, no thanks," Sasuke said, moving his closed eyed face away from Naruto, "This 'sparring' idea would only be a warm-up if it was against you, loser."

Naruto flinched at that, and gritted his teeth with white-anime-style eyes and yelled, "What'd you say, Sasuke?!"

Before Sakura could issue another serious death threat, Iruka calmed the three, "Okay, you guys; let's take it down a notch. You're a team, so you need to act like one."

Naruto grumbled, but soon his overactive hyper head turned into the direction of Kakashi, who was silently reading his book. The boy soon had a devilish grin come across his face, as he started to giggle. He then slowly tiptoed at the Jonin.

"Fine, then. If I can't spar against Sasuke, I'll just take on Kakashi-sensei and beat him before he knows it," he said giggling as he continued to go after him.

"Naruto! You shouldn't do that! You're gonna get in trouble!" Sakura scolded.

"Besides, you got totally humiliated the last time you tried to take Kakashi one-on-one. What makes you think you're going to do better this time around?" Sasuke replied without even looking at him.

"Yeah, Sasuke's totally right. You're so clueless, Naruto!" Sakura agreed automatically and placed her hands on her hips as she stood up next to the Uchiha.

Naruto's head whirled around and gave them a glare of disappointment and hilarious sneering, "Well, who asked for your opinions anyway? Now, be quiet; you're gonna tip him off of me coming at him!"

A bit of a frustrated growl came from Sakura as the veins in her forehead showed she was very agitated with the knucklehead. Sasuke could've care less about it; he just shrugged it off and ignored him. But then realizing he was there, both looked at Iruka, as he was smiling at the boy's silly and clumsy attempt to go after him.

"Iruka-sensei... aren't you going to stop Naruto?" Sakura asked in confusion.

"Well, in all honesty, Sakura, I know Naruto's not going to win here," the man answered gently, "But frankly, I'd like to see how strong he's grown from the mission you were all on."

With that, both of Naruto's teammates decided to watch the boy get closer and closer to his target. Soon, once he got within a good range, the genin started to rush at him, readying a punch. With a battle cry, Naruto threw the punch at Kakashi, only to find he wasn't there at all. The boy became bewildered as he looked around until...

"Ahh, Naruto, what ever are you doing?" he heard his sensei's voice from behind him.

With a gulp, the genin shook in fear as he realized that he was crouching behind him in a certain position and holding his pointer and middle fingers close together. Oh, no, not that again...

"A thousand years of death!"

With a horribly fast and painful jab, Naruto went soaring into the air, shrieking in pain with tears coming out of his eyes as he held his rear end. Sakura and Sasuke looked unimpressed and incredulous at their teammate, who came down hard on the ground and laid twitching. Iruka sighed as he buried his face into his hands. With that, Kakashi walked right over to the fallen genin and continued to read his book.

"Naruto, you have to understand to come at me without making so much noise," he lectured.

"As usual, Naruto is completely useless," Sakura groaned.

A simple 'hmph' came out of Sasuke... only to then widen his eyes to Naruto poofing into smoke! He and Sakura gasped as they realized it was a clone! Iruka looked to see that too, and somewhat smiled at it. Kakashi blinked in surprise as he then heard a noise of an weapon being thrown. Out of the bushes came a single kunai right towards him. The Jonin relaxed as he readied to catch it.

"Well, well, it seems you've gotten a bit wiser on attacking me," he said, "but you can't just get me with a simple trick like that."

With that being said, he easily caught the incoming kunai. But once he touched it, he flinched in shock.

_"No way... it can't be...!"_ he thought.

Suddenly, the kunai bursted into smoke, revealing Naruto and that Kakashi had grabbed his ankle. The rest of the group became drawn into the match as they watched in amazement at the boy's sudden cleverness. As Naruto revealed himself, he threw a punch at Kakashi, forcing his sensei to block the incoming attack. But then, he felt the book in his hand get knocked out of his grip. He watched as another Naruto rushed out of the bushes and grabbed it before it hit the ground. With that, Naruto pushed off of Kakashi, forcing him to let go, and jumped back with his clone, before bursting out in laughter.

"Hahaha! I got you, sensei! Last time we fought, you said a ninja has got to see through deception, right? Well, I totally made you drop your guard there! And the best part of all, I made you lose your book, something I couldn't do the first time you and I fought! That's gotta prove I've gotten a heck of a lot stronger, right!?" he grinned and yelled, cheering like he just won a war.

"You've only proven how clueless you are! You're celebrating about how you stole his book? How stupid are you, Naruto!?" Sakura scolded him with an angry anime face.

"I guess I am mistaken, Naruto; you have gotten a lot stronger," Kakashi smiled, as Naruto's clone threw the book back to him, and he put it in his bag, "I suppose I can't read the book and fight you at the same time anymore."

"THAT'S RIGHT! YOU AND ME; RIGHT NOW, NO DISTRACTIONS! LET'S GO!" Naruto roared as he raised his fist to Kakashi with a grin.

"All right, then, Naruto; Let's just see how much stronger you've gotten," Kakashi nodded as his opponent and his clone rushed at him.

As the fight continued, Sakura sighed and folded her arms, "I don't get it; Naruto didn't win any fight against Kakashi-sensei. So why is he so happy and excited?"

"You honestly don't see?" Iruka said, catching her attention, "According to Kakashi when you guys did the bell drill with him, Naruto was reckless and didn't use proper tactics as a ninja. He fought like any person on the street could, and used his clones foolishly. Just now, he showed more wisdom in using them as a diversion instead of him usually screaming like a wild man and attacking head-on. He's gotten stronger in the sense that he now knows not to always charge in without caution."

As they turned to watch the battle, Kakashi had knocked Naruto hard to the ground, causing the boy to bounce against the hard ground. Twitching in pain a bit, the boy got on his hands and knees, looked up at Kakashi, and smirked.

"I'm not giving up!" he yelled, as he made a few clones, and fell back, letting the clones fight Kakashi.

Sasuke watched with interest; was this really the same Naruto from the academy? What happened... when did he suddenly get a bit more mature? It was amazing to him as this loser... this goofy worthless wacko had gotten a bit stronger in a short amount of time. Of course, it wasn't anything major; the doofus finally got some wisdom in that empty skull...

But he was more interested in why he fought. I mean, Naruto always bragged; He's gonna become Hokage, he's gonna have people respect him, he's gonna be Sasuke, Kakashi, and anyone who gets in his way to prove his strength. But... really now, was that his reason?

"...Hey, Iruka?" he said, not looking at his sensei, but getting his and Sakura's attention, "Why does Naruto fight so hard to achieve this dream of his that's so far away?"

"S-Sasuke?" Sakura said his name, pretty much asking him to clarify.

"I mean, at his level, the loser's no where near the right to boast about how he's going to become Hokage. What's his motivation? Why does he fight in order to have his dream?" Sasuke asked.

Iruka slowly smiled, and closed his eyes, "Well, Sasuke, Naruto's always been an odd one; he's very eager to jump into something if he feels he can do it, and refuses to stop until he's done it. You two know how Naruto's been shunned by a lot of people, right?" he explained, sort of making the truth seem smaller to the two, then continued as they nodded, "Well, he wants to be respected, so that people can count on him to protect them and so that people can acknowledge his worth. But a part of me thinks he also wants something more."

"Something more?" Sakura asked, as the two looked over blinking.

"Yes... I think more than anything, Naruto... wants to be understood..."

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Sasuke opened his eyes and looked at Naruto, who was still seething in anger. He took a gentle breath, and opened his mouth.

"So, is that what you want?" he asked, causing Naruto to lose his anger in an instant and look with pure dumbfounded silence, "Look, Naruto, I don't need you to remind me of your dream to become Hokage. You've said it so many times, I couldn't forget it even if I wanted to. But is that something you also want; to be understood?"

The pure silence from Naruto's lips shook him to the core; how could he reply to that? He always wanted that, but why was it so hard to say yes to it now, and especially to Sasuke of all people?

"Also, you claim that nobody care about you; then what of Iruka? Those Ichiraku Ramen people you go to almost on a daily basis? What of people like them? Don't they care about you, or do you think they're not enough?" Sasuke asked, locking his dark eyes onto him.

The confusion started to rise up in Naruto as he looked down, and shook a bit. This was making him feel completely uncomfortable. It wasn't like Sasuke to ask him all this stuff. Why did he care? I mean, sure at one point, maybe he thought the two were friends, but then again, Sasuke never cared... right?

"And also, you keep jumping back from why you're leaving the village. You said originally if you get rid of the nine-tailed fox, you'll come back to the village; but now, you keep shouting how nobody likes you and you hate the village. So, which is it? Do you want to come back to the village or not?" his opponent pressed.

Naruto grunted as he looked up at Sasuke, "Rrgh, shut up! Why should I tell you anything, Sasuke?!"

"Because you're not making sense, you loser," Sasuke said, seeing that Naruto was becoming more hostile again and could attack at any moment, "I'm trying to understand why you're really leaving here, so maybe I can help you. But you're being over-dramatic and complicating things."

"I said I don't need your help! Now just stay out of my life and go away!" Naruto said, summoning two clones by his side as all three charged at the readied Uchiha.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

I had an awesome Christmas break! How about you guys? What'd you guys get for Christmas? Here's my late present to you! A new chapter; hope it's good! Keep on reading!


	10. The real reason?

GEESUME CROW, GUYS, I AM SO SORRY IT'S BEEN MONTHS SINCE THE LAST CHAPTER HERE! I passed my semester in college and got a job, so I've been very busy; I'm a bit also not feeling like this chapter is good. If people think so too, I'll re-edit it. but for now, WELCOME BACK TO THIS STORY! 8D

Let's continue...

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Barely escaped Naruto and his clones, Sasuke panted as temporarily found a quick hiding space. Naruto was looking around, angry.

"Come on! Where did you weasel away to now, Sasuke!?" he screamed.

The Uchiha slowly took and breath and calmed down. He needed time to think. None of what Naruto was saying made sense. He talked about how he would come back once the Nine-tails was out of him, yet doesn't want to come back because of the village?

_"He's making things up... there's got to be a real reason why he's leaving. Let's see... according to Kakashi, I hurt him really badly... wait, that's it!"_

Suddenly, flashbacks flew into Sasuke's mind as he remembered all the times Naruto said he'd never stop until he'd get his approval. The goofball's dream was to become Hokage so that he could be respected, but he knew that he was one of the people who was most important on being acknowledged. That would explain everything... like that one time...

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

A flashback let a gust of the beautiful wind blow gently throughout the Leaf Village. A wonderful day was developing in Konoha as the training field's river glistened brightly in the sunrise. Team 7 laid on the ground, panting and very exhausted as Kakashi stood in front of them, reading his book. He watched the three slowly get up, all exhausted with Sakura wiping her forehead and the boys wiping the blood from their faces.

"Well... you three did much better than I thought, but still, you have a lot of work to do," Kakashi said, not even looking at them, "Although you three showed incredible strength and will during Orochimaru's attack, we'll need you further train you."

"Freaking damn it!" Naruto pounded the ground with his right fist, "We were so close!"

"Tch..." Sasuke scoffed and gritted his teeth behind his lips, at this point back in time, still in his black Chunin outfit.

"There's no way we're gonna be able to beat Kakashi-sensei at this rate," Sakura stated barely, gasping through every other three words.

"We almost did! If Sasuke didn't get it my way, I could've whopped Kakashi-sensei before he could even see it coming!" Naruto yelled, doing his famous 'blame Sasuke for everything' routine and pointed at him.

Sasuke closed his eyes frustratedly and turned his head away, "Don't howl, loser. You're the one who royally screwed up."

"WHAT DID YOU SAY TO ME, SASUKE!?" Naruto roared, but was cut off with a yelp as a familiar fist pummeled into his head.

"NARUTO! DON'T TALK TO SASUKE LIKE THAT!" Sakura yelled at him as the boy struggled to regain his senses after they were pretty much rocked out of his ears.

"Owww, Sakura...! Why do ya gotta hit so hard? You always take Sasuke's side on everything..." he whined as he looked down and leaned his head near the ground.

Kakashi simply sighed silently and watched the drama the three would do almost every day. It was like he could simply record this and it would sound exactly the same from beginning to end. He closed his book and put it in his bag.

"Well, you three have fun; I gotta go and do some errands around the Leaf Village. I trust you three will be okay on your own; later."

With a flash of quickness, the Jonin left the three alone. Sasuke and Sakura struggled to get up as they heard their teammate giggle.

"Hey, guys," Naruto said, grinning at them, "I guess in a way, we all did a lot better than last time! So, what do you think, guys? Have I gotten any stronger?"

Sakura folded her arms and closed her eyes, smirking, "Well... I gotta say, you have maybe gotten a bit better, but you're not as good as Sasuke."

Sasuke hmphed with a bit of a grin, "Tch, come on; you think this was better? What happened to that strength you had against Gaara of the Sand? I guess that was just a one time trick, loser."

As he turned, he and Sakura began walking away to the exit of the training field. She watched her crush casually put his hands on his pockets and walk calmly away from their other teammate.

"So, Sasuke, um... Do you wanna hang out together?" Sakura said, her hopes up with a blush on her face.

"Nah... I've got some things to do," Sasuke said, annoyance and part of disgusting emotions on his face.

He knew she never gave up so easily as she kept saying, "Oh, I was just wondering if you wanted to do something maybe later... heeheehee, so, maybe we can?"

As the two had their somewhat one sided and awkward conversation, they realized that a certain orange obnoxious ninja was not ever near them. They turned around to see Naruto on the ground still, covering his face with an arm. Both looked at each other with a concerned yet confused face; none of them had seen Naruto act like that. The two then walked back over to Naruto as Sakura bent down to him.

"Naruto? Hey, are you okay?" she asked.

A jerk from his body caused him to look up at the two. He quickly covered his eyes with his arm, rubbed them, and then put on a cheerful face. But for a split second, Sasuke could've sworn his eyes had tears in them...

"O-Oh, sorry, I didn't hear you," the goofball grinned his signature smile, rubbing his head.

"How could you not hear us? We were standing right next to you; geez, I swear, Naruto, you're hopeless," Sakura sighed, shaking her head.

"Didn't mean to make you worry, Sakura. Come on, let's g- Aaugh!" Naruto said, trying to stand up, but suddenly collapsed on the ground, back on his knees.

Sakura and Sasuke flinched at the scream of pain he made, dropping to his side. Quickly scanning his body for injuries, they found the one that was the cause; his right foot with its ankle badly cut up and his foot looked slightly out of joint, considering it was pointing a bit in the wrong direction.

"Darn it... that hurts...," Naruto gritted his teeth and closed his eyes.

Sasuke looked at it, a bit hard on his eyes to look at it, "You must've screwed your foot up during the last few blows you took from Kakashi. He must not have noticed it."

"We need to get you to the hospital, Naruto. That doesn't look broken, but we should be careful just in case," Sakura said.

"No, I'm fine," Naruto bared his teeth as he stood up as he could, his injured foot a bit twitching, "I can walk; there's nothing to it."

"Naruto! You can't walk and that's final!" Sakura said louder, concerned, "You need to sit back d-"

"I SAID I'M FINE!"

The sudden shout caused Sakura and Sasuke to flinch back in shock at the sudden roar of Naruto's voice. He never screamed at Sakura like that, and not with that much anger. Both saw the pure frustration and annoyance on his face, but after a few blinks, he realized his error and looked down much more sad. He soon raised his face to the girl he yelled at and made an awkward and small smile.

"S-Sorry, Sakura, didn't mean to burst out like that; I meant, I'm fine. I'm just needing a break, that's all," he covered for himself.

"...O-okay, but uh... if you need anything, you let us know, all right?" Sakura said, slightly smiling, but was shaken up.

With a nod, the boy stood up and began walking ahead of them to the entrance of the training field. But as he passed Sasuke, he couldn't help but look at him. The Uchiha widened his eyes at what he saw; nothing but pure disappointment and heartbroken emotion was on the boy's face. This wasn't like Naruto; he'd never act like this. The sore and saddened expression of his teammate confused him as Naruto turned away and limped out of the training field, out of view. It was only moments when Sakura joined him by his side.

"What was that about...?" Sakura asked, looking at Sasuke.

He didn't answer, but at the time he didn't really care for he needed to train for his next encounter with Itachi. But now that he looked back at it with the other flashback...

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Sasuke panted as he hid behind a huge boulder. He had been really going hard on this fight, and these memories were effecting him in a huge way. He realized how much of such a giant impact it was for Naruto to get him to notice his strength. What was just minor teasing were humungous insults to his friend. It must be the reason why Naruto was leaving. Closing his eyes, he suddenly heard footsteps very close to his right. His eyes flew open in shock as he looked to his right to see Naruto turn right behind the boulder with a punch ready.

_"Gh! He already found me!?"_ Sasuke thought as he readied to move.

Quickly jumping back as Naruto missed, the boy jumped out onto the water and watched his opponent smirk and join him.

"Heh, you get me so riled up for this fight, now you're playing hide and seek with me? Seems your tough talk is backfiring, Sasuke," he said, mocking him.

He noticed he quickly slipped a kunai out of his sleeve into his hand. He twirled it before he got a perfect grip and held it ready to attack.

"Hehe, you ready for yet another round? I'm surprised you want your butt kicked so badly," he grinned at Sasuke.

"You want me to acknowledge you, don't you?"

"H-Huh?"

/\/\/\/\/\/\

Sorry for the lack of not making stuff, guys; real life as a college student is hard! Be back shortly!


	11. Naruto's true emotions

Hey, guys, I'm back; I want to apologize for the months delay. My life has been not bad or hectic, but just busy; it happens when you're a college student. So, I'll try to do what I can from now on. But I wanted to tackle yet another review that kind of made me frown. This user isn't from Fanfic, because when you click on his name, it doesn't do anything. But I wanted to make a response to him.

grammer: This is soooo lame

If it's sooo lame, why are you reading my story and giving a review on it? You know what this reminds me of? Those people who hate Eng or Jap dubs of anime, and then proceed to find dub videos and then comment about how much they loathe them. If you hate or dislike them so much, why spend your time talking about them? I mean, grammer, it's not like I pointed a gun at your head and forced you to read it (no matter what anyone says . ), so by all means, if you don't want to read my story, there are several buttons you can click on, most of them being the back and X button on the top of your browser. Ladies and Gentleman, if you're going to give me a review, at least explain if you say my stories are bad, WHY they're bad, so I can take criticism and improve. So, grammer, next time, elaborate on why they're bad (of course, give logical and legitimate reasons why), or don't say anything at all.

But let's show some reviews that are good or helped me improve:

MBScavenger1498: Huh... well, this is altogether interesting. Most stories like this start at the beginning, so it's nice to see someone starting later, even if that'll make it harder to convincingly pull off the changes in peoples' personalities. You've got a few redundant sentences in here and your word choice could be a bit more varied, but altogether, your editing is solid. The only real problem is that you point out the divergence point. Honestly, it's pretty obvious anyway and having a line of bold text in the middle of the story just kills the immersion of the reader.

brunofanofk: Really liked it, your story started weak but grows and become heartbreaking. I almost cried when naruto confronted sakura.

Ascarde: This is new to me, and I have always wondered what could've happened. Now, I've seen dark Naruto fics before; y'know the drill. Naruto drops the dope mask, leaves, picking up a harem is optional, and either founds a new village or destroys Konoha, the end. But this... this hasn't been done before. Not only did you make Naruto NOT drop the mask, you made Sasuke stay pure, WITH his dream still intact. Congratulations, you have the distinct honor of having my full attention towards future updates.

Now, to some new chapter content! :D (thank you guys!)

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Naruto's whole being was stopped short and rattled. It couldn't be true. Sasuke couldn't have said that; it was just a trick his mind was playing tricks on him. There was no way that Sasuke...

"It's the truth, isn't it? Your real goal is to get me to admit that you are a worthy rival, right?" he heard.

No, it was true... this was happening, and this was real. Naruto blinked in pure shock as he looked up at the one person who stood in his way. Sasuke.

"Now, I'm not forgetting about your dream; you want to become Hokage and get people to respect you, treat you like a human being. I mean, you've howled and barked that so many times that it's been carved into my brain now, so I can't forget it," Sasuke explained, "But when I recall certain instances when you've asked about how strong you've gotten, I'm the one who impacts you the most, aren't I? If it's just a regular person from the village; heck, even if it's Sakura or Kakashi, you just shrug it off like it's nothing. But when it's me... it rattles you to your core. Any word I say, you act tough, but it grabs you and can change your mood instantly."

Naruto could feel all the lies and defenses he put up being torn to shreds. His teammate was peeling away everything right now, and he somehow felt too weak to stop him.

"That's why ever since I made the mistake of letting my rage take over and I called you... a monster...," Sasuke continued, slightly cringing at that part of that sentence, "you gave up. My words crushed you so hard, you decided that was the last straw, and ever since that fight, your dream no longer seemed acceptable enough due to blow I dealt to you, both physically and mentally."

Naruto gritted his teeth in frustration, moving his head away and closing his eyes.

"Why bother trying to prove to people you're strong and you should be respected as Hokage if the one person you're aiming to show that to the most thinks you're pathetic and a monster? So, you left, not because of the village's constant abuse to you from the past, but because I shattered you. I'll give you credit though, that using the Nine-tailed Fox and your past as an alibi was clever; but it doesn't make sense," Sasuke kept going, taking a few steps forward, "Why didn't you leave before? If the village really hated you, why didn't you try to escape as a kid? It's because you met people who found faith and believed in you, like Iruka, Konohamaru, Hinata, and the rest of us, and you began to show it through battles like with Kiba and Neji. But after what happened a few days ago... I tore that all down and destroyed it, didn't I?"

He slowly narrowed his eyes at his friend, and asked, "Naruto... do you really take what I say so seriously? Am I that special and valued in your eyes?"

He watched as Naruto slowly dropped his head down and began to chuckle. But it wasn't a maniacal chuckle; it was a tired, sighing one. At first, he was on guard, but he was surprised as the "raring to go and fight" face that was just there turned into a soft and gentle one when Naruto looked at him.

"...Sasuke... I knew that... when we were kids, you were lonely and sad," the Jinchuuriki said, slowly standing up straight, "I didn't know how and why you were like that, but... I felt like we were so similar. I was surprised... and happy too. I had finally found someone who I could relate to. From first glance, I wanted to get to know you right off the bat and become friends..."

Slowly, he looked up onto the sky and sighed, shaking his head, "But... things never go right as I planned, because I have the crappiest luck, and the most stupid personality."

Sasuke remained standing in amazement as he watched his friend look back at him. This was completely different from the usual smack-talk, loudmouth goofball he knew. Yet, he wanted to hear this; Naruto needed to let the truth out.

"Sasuke, you could do anything," he heard him say, "Absolutely anything the teachers threw at you back at the Academy, you aced it perfectly. And you were so popular, especially with the students... and Sakura. While me, the pathetic and rejected kid that everyone would just ignore, would spend hours to days on simple things like throwing shuriken and I couldn't even do that! Hell, I could've been a ninja years before you, but since I suck so much, I ended up failing three times. So, because of this, I saw your progress and I got incredibly frustrated about how you were so good. I then was ticked off and decided to declare you as my rival. You were my goal, to surpass and beat you to prove to others that I was an awesome ninja. But..."

Sasuke blinked as he watched Naruto close his eyes. But soon, he was taken off guard by the next sentence.

"In reality... Sasuke... you were my idol; I wanted to be just like you."

No way... After all this time of arguing, bickering, and taunting each other... this was his true feelings. The Uchiha could only stand there, feeling even more guilty of his past actions. How dare he call Naruto a monster...

"You... wanted to be like me?" he asked, causing Naruto to look away, a little sheepishly.

"Y-yeah... I mean, you were always so smart and clever; you know what to do in any situation during battles... and people always looked up to you," his friend said, "I envied that so much because to me, that was what a ninja was."

"But why didn't you tell me this from the beginning? Naruto, this could've solved so many problems and conflicts between us, especially this one right now," Sasuke pressed about it.

"My pride and stubbornness," Naruto said, closing his eyes, getting upset, "My damn pride is always the downfall of me, and you, along with everyone who knows me, can't argue the fact that when I do something great like beat an opponent or win something, I let it go to my head. And when I get into fights with people, I get so stubborn with them, I can't even say a simple apology to them without getting into another fight. I knew we were so similar yet so different, you and I, but... because of how I wanted to prove myself and how you sometimes would call me a loser and say I sucked, I would defend my pride and brag about myself against you. Even when we were put on a team with Sakura and Kakashi-sensei, I couldn't let the truth come out. It would just lead to another routine of 'blame Sasuke for everything', which would follow with you mocking me, Sakura pounding me with all she's got, and Kakashi-sensei looking at us like we're stupid idiots... … ...I was stubborn and prideful... I couldn't get myself to say this to you... but then, that point at the Chunin Exams, where you told me that you were interested in me..."

Sasuke suddenly remembered that sentence all too well. It was where he told Sakura that he would fight no matter what injury he had, and when Naruto confronted him to lighten up. He could even remember the exact words.

_"Naruto. You're one of the ones I want to fight the most."_

He watched in silence as his friend chuckled, to the point where suddenly, he could've sworn his voice began to give out a bit... as if he was crying.

"When... when you told me that, I could never have been happier," Naruto hid his face as well as he could with his right arm, but yet his gigantic grin and the tears running down his face was visible, "It was for the first time... I actually proved to be someone in your eyes and that you were proud enough to challenge me in a fight... that I was somebody... Yet... I didn't care about fighting you... what I really wanted was..."

Sasuke's heart sank deeper as he heard, "I just wanted you to be my friend..."

Suddenly, Naruto's happy demeanor and pleasant smile soon turned into an emotionless scowl as he slowly lowered his head and let go of his face, the shadows covering his eyes. The sudden change of attitude quickly put Sasuke on guard; he readied himself as his hand quickly positioned itself above his shuriken holster.

"But then... you... you proved to me that you were just like everyone else... you think that I'm a monster, because of things I had no choice or control over...!" Naruto's voice grew bold as he suddenly raised his head up and glared at him.

Sasuke flinched as he looked into that cold, hateful stare; the pure anger and rage he saw back on the rooftop. He waited though for any sign of an attack, despite his teammate's roaring to continue.

"I'm done, ya know!?" Naruto shouted, pointing at Sasuke, "I'm done with all the bullshit you and that lousy excuse for a 'warm family' of a village put me through! To work my body until it nearly broke into pieces for you to just shun me for what's inside me! You can lie all you want, Sasuke, but you showed me your true feelings towards me back on that rooftop, when I thought it was my chance to prove to you how much I've grown! You hate me... you're just like everyone else..."

Taking a break to take a huge breath and calm down, he lowered his arm, yet kept his gaze on him as he added, "This village is nothing but sheer pain and loneliness for me. And you're only making it worse. That's why I want to get away from you and all those freaking idiots; if that means that I have to go to the Akatsuki, then I will; and Sasuke, if you are gonna get it my way, I will destroy you... just like you have destroyed me."

It was all done. There was no more that needed to be said. With this, he...

"...This is all my fault."

Causing Naruto to perk up in confusion, Sasuke closed his eyes as he replied to his long explanation, "Naruto... I... I never knew you looked up to me that much. But, I can't allow you to just leave this village; it's too dangerous for you and the whole world to go wandering outside by yourself. I don't know what horrible plans the Akatsuki have for you, and I refuse to let you fall to whatever they are. All I know is that this whole incident... the reason you feel so much pain... it's all my fault. And as the person responsible, I will correct this mistake."

Quickly shoving his hand into his holster, and grabbing one of his last kunai, he boldly announced, "Naruto... I swear in the name of the Uchiha, I won't let you leave this village!"

It caused Naruto to suddenly wipe his eyes, causing pure hatred to show, as he rushed enraged at him, "Try and stop me! SASUKE!"

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

How's that? I worked really hard to come up with a true reason Naruto left; I hope I did good! How's everyone's summer going!? ^^ Enjoy! :D


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